Reinardt Janse van Rensburg. Picture: GALLO IMAGES/KIRK KOTZE
Reinardt Janse van Rensburg. Picture: GALLO IMAGES/KIRK KOTZE

KUALA LUMPUR — South African cyclist Reinardt Janse van Rensburg is the overall leader going into Wednesday’s final stage of the Tour de Langkawi and knows he cannot take anything for granted.

Janse van Rensburg and his Dimension Data team worked their socks off to maintain the lead during Tuesday’s seventh stage, reports Cyclingnews.com.

"Definitely," Janse van Rensburg replied when asked if he felt better about being in the yellow jersey.

"I think the team showed today how strong they are. After defending it, I think it feels a little bit better to have it on my shoulders now."

When Janse van Rensburg took the overall leader’s yellow jersey in Monday’s sixth stage, he expressed regret for the circumstances that led to him deposing the overnight leader, Columbian Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana), and moving up from second place overall.

Lopez, who took the lead by winning stage four on Sunday into the Cameron Highlands, lost his lead on Sunday due to a broken wheel, with 6km to go that led to him finishing 35sec behind Janse van Rensburg and the peloton.

Starting Tuesday’s seventh stage, 202.3km from Seremban to Parit Sulong, Janse van Rensburg led the tour by 11sec over second-placed Daniel Jaramillo (UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling) of Colombia and 12sec on third-placed Lopez.

The overall podium standings remained the same after Andrea Guardini (Astana) won the stage — his third this year and 21st career victory in the tour — in a bunch sprint from fellow Italian Jakub Mareczko (Southeast-Venezuala) and Slovakian Juraj Sagan (Tinkoff).

But Janse van Rensburg, fifth on the stage, was more buoyant after he and his team fought off the moves by his key rivals and their teams to pressure him with a number of attacks — moves also aimed at trying to reshuffle the overall classification below him (with only 59sec separating second to 25th positions) and the various positions in the other categories still up for grabs.

Janse van Rensburg and Dimension Data marked several early moves, one of them by six riders including Pole Karel Domagalski (ONE Pro Cycling) and Belgian Laurens De Vreese (Astana) and got up to 1min 5sec before the King of the Mountains climb at 27km.

Then, with that contained on the climb, Jaramillo and Lopez surged to the top to try to get a break on the South African and take vital seconds back on the first intermediate sprint after the descent at 46.6km.

Covering the move, Janse van Rensburg found himself in a 25-strong group with his rivals, but behind a new break of six, again including Domagalski and De Vreese.

Janse van Rensburg’s team chased for the rest of the stage, accounting for every member of the break that changed in numbers and names and gained a maximum lead of 5min 20sec, with 50km to go until the last survivor, De Vreese, was caught with 3km to go and a bunch sprint was assured with the responsibility to ride at the front finally falling on the sprinters’ teams.

"The team was really strong," Janse van Rensburg said. "I was all the time saying to them, ‘Slow down, slow down’ so the sprinters’ teams should come up and help us close the gap. There was not a lot of help, but the team was really strong."

Cyclingnews.com