LTdL 2024: Gleb Sounds Early Warning With Stage One Victory

LANGKAWI, Sept 29 (Bernama) -- Russian cyclist Gleb Syritsa, displayed an energetic ride to win the first stage of Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) 2024 involving a distance of 96.5 kilometres (km) from Kuah around Pulau Langkawi, here today.

The 23-year-old Astana Qazaqstan rider first crossed the finish line with a time of two hours four minutes 37 seconds, at the prestigious Asian cycling race.

DSM-Firmenich PostNL rider Casper Van Uden and VF Group Bardiani CSF-Faizane rider Lorenzo Conforti took second and third place respectively in the race that ended in a mass finish.

The victory saw Gleb wearing the green jersey as the overall leader (GC) and the orange jersey (Sprint King).

It was his fourth stage victory after winning the first stage in the 2022 edition as well as the second and eighth stages in 2023.

"It was a good race for my team. Today they did a really good job especially at the end of the race. Going to the finish line it wasn't too dangerous because I had a teammate protecting me.

"Of course I'm very happy, I think I can win another race at another stage. We followed the planned tactics, just waiting for the right moment to make the final push," he said.

In the meantime, national rider Muhammad Nur Aiman ​​Rosli representing Terengganu Cycling Team (TSG) won Asia's Best Rider (white jersey) title after winning second place in two acceleration zones and one climbing zone.

However, Nur Aiman ​​Rosli collected one point, losing the King of the Mountain (polka dot jersey) to ARA Skip Capital rider, Tyler Tomkinson (two points) when he captured the climbing zone at Look Out Point.

Tomorrow's second stage from Arau to Butterworth, a distance of 154.5 km offers three acceleration zones at Jitra, Menara Alor Setar and Sungai Petani.

-- BERNAMA