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Simon Carr (EF Education-EasyPost) won the queen stage 5 at the Tour de Langkawi after dropping teammate Jefferson Alexander Cepeda 4km from the line in Genting Highlands following a complete domination of the final climb by the American team.
Carr and Cepeda finished 1-2 on the stage and moved into the top two spots on GC, with the Brit taking a 49-second lead over his Ecuadorian teammate going into the final three stages.
This is Carr’s third win of the season, but clearly a much more important one as the 25-year-old Brit dedicated the victory to his late grandfather after the stage.
“For me, it means a lot, not just because of this race but also actually I was really, really motivated to win today,” said Carr. “My grandfather passed away just last Monday and he was a big fan so I really wanted to win this for him.”
Carr praised his teammates after they ensured the break didn’t get away and set a brutal enough pace on the final climb to shred the entire group, highlighting their prominence as the strongest climbing team at the race.
“It was an amazing job by the whole team, taking it on. I’m just really, really happy to finish it off,” said Carr. “It was already pretty hard. We set a hard pace from the start of the climb.
“With Tom [Scully] already chasing the break and Michael [Valgren] and Odd [Christian Eiking] and then Jardi [Christiaan van der Lee], our stagiere, they did a really good job.”
Cepeda had attacked first, making Carr’s acceleration to chase his teammate curious, but the Brit explained the move and clearly didn’t want to waste strong legs.
“When Alexander [Cepeda] went it was really the right time. I could immediately tell no one else had anything left so I came across [to Alexander] but I think we played it really, really well.”
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