There were two stars of the show at the start of the final stage of Petronas Le Tour de Langkawi on Sunday: one was the retiring winner of four stages of the Tour de France, Milan San Remo and Tour of Flanders, Alexander Kristoff, and the other was Aiman Rosli, the Malaysian champion riding with Terengganu.
Rosli was starting in his home town the day after delighting fans by being one of the two riders who defied the chasing sprinters on stage 7.
He was barely able to walk a metre without being stopped by fans wanting selfies or journalists wanting interviews in Tangkak, Cyclingnews among them.
Rosli was a man in demand, the only Malaysian on the stage podium at this year’s edition of Le Tour de Langkawi and the home crowd wanted to revel in it. Rosli didn’t seem to mind either, with a wide grin and exuding a relaxed demeanour as he juggled the attention and interviews while also trying to get ready for a tough final stage of racing to Kuala Lumpur.
Zeb Kyffin (Unibet Tietema Rockets) then launched and joined him with around 10km to go and together there was even a point when they were stretching open the gap.
The crowd also followed suit, with stage winner Kyffin seeming to be a bit of a second thought for the local crowd and local media, as while there was no doubting the significance of this first professional win for Kyffin, the runner-up held centre stage among the local fans.
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