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LTdL Stage 6: Panaria Rule Again
It was another Panaria dominated day as Ruben Bongiorno grabbed his second win in Stage Six of the Telekom Malaysia Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) from Kuala Berang to Cukai yesterday.
Making it the third one-two finish for the Italian outfit, was points competition leader Greame Brown, as the commitment of the other sprinters in the peloton came back into question.
The wavy 152 kilometre stage, comprised a short category one climb at Kijal. The big sprinters in the bunch - Stefan Van Diijk of Mr.Bookmaker and Gregory Habeaux of Credit Agricole - did make their presence felt in the three intermediate sprints at Kampung Dendang, Dungun and Kerteh.
However, the final sprint yet again saw Panaria's orange train proving too good. That made a record 11th stage win for the Italian Panaria outfit, who are turning this edition of the Tour into their record run.
Although the big guns aiming for the general classification (GC) seem to be lining themselves up for a titanic battle up Genting tomorrow, Panaria are still awaiting challengers in the sprint finishes.
"Like it's been all along, the team did a great job today (yesterday). I take my hat off again to the whole team for doing such a great job," said Brown, who himself is now the record holder for most number of stage wins in LTdL.
The peloton heads into another wavy run along the 167.7km Stage Seven from Maran to Raub today, which is expected to end in another bunch sprint.
Cukai, Malaysia 3/2/2005
