National road race champion Matt Brammeier collected his second red jersey of King of the Mountains at the Tour of Langkawi today.
By Gerard Cromwell
National road race champion Matt Brammeier avoided two crashes in the final 500m of today’s stage of the Tour of Langkawi and continued his good start to the season when he finished eighth on the 133km second leg from Sg. Petani to Taipeng.
Today’s stage was won in a mass bunch gallop by Dutch sprinter Theo Bos of Belkin, who took victory ahead of teammate Graeme Browne and Austrian Marco Haller of Katusha
Five riders, including Brammeier’s Synergy Baku teammates Elchin Asadov and Tural Isgandarov went clear early on in the stage but the quintet were reeled in with 10km remaining as the sprinters’ teams surged to the front.
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The narrow winding roads in the final kilometres saw two big crashes in the peloton, including one which took out experienced Astana sprinter Andrea Guardini and Brammeier's German teammate Michael Schweizer among others.
"I'm happy to come through that unscathed," Brammeier said afterwards. "Although I'm less happy our sprinter Michael crashed behind me. I think he had a good chance of a podium place."
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Although he didn’t score any points on today’s fourth category climb at Batam, Brammeier continues to wear the red jersey of King of the Mountains leader and holds a 12 point lead in the competition over stage one winner and overall leader Duber Quintero of Team Colombia.
Quintero still leads the 11-day race by 22 seconds from Aussie Jonathon Clarke of UnitedHealthcare while Brammeier currently lies third overall at 24 seconds.
Brammeier finished in second place on the opening stage, despite enduring cramps for the final 30km of the stage and his eighth place today means he is in with a shout of a stage win in this 2.HC race.
The Synergy Baku rider is also second in the points competition, just seven points behind race leader Quintero.
Brammeier, in his Synergy Baku national champion's kit, leads eventual stage winner Duber Quintero (Colombia) as the attacking began from the escape on yesterday's opening stage.
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