CAMERON HIGHLANDS, Saturday - Hengxiang Cycling Team's Wang Meiyin created his own piece of Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) history when he won Stage 3 from Sungai Siput to Cameron Highlands and swept all four leaders' jerseys.
The 25-year old cyclist drew on all his strength to win the 140.7 kilometre stage by riding the final 40 kilometres solo after he dropped four other breakaway partners who had conspired to escape about 10 kilometres into the stage.
Meiyin finished in 3 hours 50 minutes and 01 seconds, 2 minutes and 27 seconds ahead of second placed Julian David Arredondo of Team Nippo and Nathan Haas of Garmin-Sharp.
After leading the Asian riders' classification from the first stage on Thursday, Meiyin yesterday finished by adding the yellow jersey as the overall leader, the blue jersey as the points classification leader andf the red jersey as the mountains classification leader to his collection.
He now leads double stage winner Theo Bos by six points after collecting 36 points in total and has a comfortable lead in the mountains classification with 44 points, with second placed Arredondo only with 20 points. His lead in the Asian riders' classification is now extended to 3 minutes and 38 seconds over second placed Alexandr Dyachenko of Astana.
"This is the greatest day of my life. It is also my biggest success so far," said Meiyin. "I was only thinking of joining the breakaway, but I didn't expect to win like this. It was not part of our team's plans. The plan was for two other teammates to get in the breakaway, but they didn't manage to do so.
"So I tried to go and succeeded. When we reached the foot of the climb, I managed to drop the other four riders and continue with my pace. "Maybe the riders in the peloton also made a mistake and didn't try to catch me earlier because they don't know me or they thought they could catch me. So I was lucky." "But I must admit that this was not an easy climb."
Meiyin added that he will try to defend the lead when the race reaches its most difficult stage, the climb up to Genting Highlands on Monday for Stage Five.
The LTdL 2013, which carries the slogan "The Heat is On", will officially begin in Kangar on February 21 and the race comprises 10 stages, covering 1469.7 kilometres.
The race is sanctioned by the International Cycling Union (UCI) as a 2.HC (hors category) race on the UCI Asia Tour calendar, organised by the Ministry of Youth and Sports, via the National Sports Council (NSC) in association with the Malaysian National Cycling Federation (MNCF).
-www.ltdl.com.my
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