Words and photos by Daniel Carruthers
Keough sped to a very good second placing at the Tour de Langkawi just behind the Italian winner, Andre Guardini (Team Farnese Vini-Selle Italia) and this was largely attributed to the successful execution of the team’s famous “Blue Train”.
“We came from pretty far back,” says Keough, “We never touched the front of the peloton, it was just the three of us and we were still accelerating all the way to the line.”
How it unfolded
As per the game plan that was set up the day before, the UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team took it easy in the peloton, doing as little work as possible and letting the bigger GC teams do the brunt of the riding. After 20kms of fast racing, a breakaway of two riders went clear and mopped up the sprint points on over. The time-gap never got to more than four minutes and it was only the concerted efforts of Garmin and with help from two Farnese Vini riders, they were able to peg back the gap gradually. With less than 20kms remaining, the gap was still hovering around the minute mark and this was when RTS rider Lee Rodgers took an opportunity to bridge across to join the duo.
With 10km remaining, the speeding peloton, led largely by Garmin had brought the trio back into the fold and from this point on it was game on for the sprinters teams.
When the peloton reached the streets of the Dutch settlement of Melaka, it was here that positioning was vital to success. It was quite a technical finish with some narrow twisting streets through the World Heritage site; as a result there were a few crashes that contributed to splitting up the peloton.
In the finale, it was only less than 25 riders contesting the sprint with the rest of the riders content to roll in to finish and conserve energy for the coming days here at the Tour de Langkawi.
The day reached sweltering temperatures and many riders were relieved to have cold-water sprayed on them to cool off.
“Our Blue Train worked out as planned, setting Keough up for the sprint; however it was unfortunate that the Italian got a jump on us with their impressive leadout,” said Eric Greene.
With many more sprint stages to come here in Malaysia, the UHC Pro Cycling Team boys are relishing their chances for further success in the chaotic dangerous sprints that Langkawi is famous for. Fortunately, for Jake Keough the faster and more hazardous the sprint, the lithe lightweight sprinter emerges with success. Keough is renowed for excelling at these types of sprint finishes and we can expect to see more of this exciting talent to upstage some of the world’s best sprinters.
Tomorrow’s stage is a longer 187.6kms, starting from the township of Melaka and ending in Parit Sulong. Will we see another top performance by the Blue Train? Stay tuned to find out!
