Ipoh, Malaysia — Local favorite Mohd Harrif Saleh shrugged off sprint leader Max Walscheid of NTT Pro Cycling in the last meter for a photo finish of the fifth stage of the ongoing 25th Petronas Le Tour de Langkawi.
Charles Dantes
The Terengganu TSG Cycling Team’s standout lead the bunched sprint of the 165.8-kilometer race with an official time of three hours, 39 minutes and 42 seconds to secure the leg. Right next to him is stage three winner Walscheid (+00) and Matteo Pelucchi of Bardiani CSF Faizane (+00).
Saleh duplicated his achievement in last year’s tour with this stage win.
The humble Malaysian sprinter expressed gratitude towards his team.
“I am very happy and I did not expect to win today but nevertheless I want to thank my teammates for the support,” said Saleh in an interview.
Saleh, though, revealed that he enjoys the challenge posed by his big German rival.
“He is big (Walscheid) and he is good but I am also good sprinter that why I can win against him,” he added.
The team general classification leaders remained on their seats with Team Sapura Cycling comfortably sitting atop the standing with 53:27:25 followed by Terangganu TSG Cycling team (+4:52) and Thailand Continental Cycling team (9:20).
Just like the team standing, the jersey-holders retained their respective colors after fifth stage.
Danilo Celano of Team Sapura kept the yellow jersey by staying in the peloton with Walscheid still the bearer of the green cloth.
Yevgeniy Fedorov of Vino-Astana Motors managed to hold the white jersey for a while longer.
The Resorts World Genting red jersey landed on Nur Aiman Zariff because of the lack of climb in yesterday’s leg.
The race moves on today for the sixth stage that starts in the afternoon at Taiping with the finish line located at Pulau Pinang for a total of 150.9km route.