After the dramatic events of Saturday, the sprinters' teams decided there would be none of the same Sunday in Sitiawan. However, a disorganized chase in the final kilometers led to chaos — but thriving in chaos was Jeremy Hunt, who showed that at age 33, he's still got the legs to beat the best.

Without a lead-out train in sight and sensing a lack of unity, the veteran Briton, who switched teams this year to Crédit Agricole, found himself in a 10-man move that skipped clear of the peloton 5km from the finish.

Early escapees Yoshimasa Hirose (Skil-Shimano) and Yukiya Arashiro (Meitan Hompo) were still away, having gone clear after 72km, but their maximum lead of 4:30 had dwindled to a mere 11 seconds.

Their capture was inevitable and sure enough, these 10 went straight through the poor Japanese pair, who could only look and wonder what might've been. Hunt notched his 25th career victory in style ahead of Matteo Priamo (CSF Group-Navigare) and Gustavo Cesar (Karpin Galicia).

"This is not an unusual way to win for me — I've actually won like this before," said Hunt, having lost none of his British accent despite escaping many European winters (including this one) by coming to Australia.

"The race was hard today — we did the first 55 kilometers flat-out and it was a hard finish. [The Tour de Langkawi] is so early in the season but I've come from Australia, so I've got an advantage over riders coming from Europe because of the good training I could do earlier. My last win was at the [GP D'Ouverture La] Marseillaise exactly one year ago, so once again I have good form at this time — and I want to keep it for the classics."

Overnight leader Matthieu Sprick (Bouygues Telecom) may still be in yellow, but the six-second buffer the lead 10 kept over the peloton elevated Cesar and Serramenti's Jackson Rodriguez to second and fifth overall respectively. Both were part of Saturday's fortuitous group, which took the race by the scruff of the neck. Though with 13 seconds separating all 19 riders, it's most definitely a lead that’s still up for grabs.

Said Cesar, just three seconds off the pace and the new leader on points: "Now I'm so close to yellow, I'll try and take some more bonus seconds and get [the yellow jersey] as soon as I can — that would be important for me and my team. The bike race is always interesting when the yellow jersey changes."

Sprick disagreed. "I don't want the yellow jersey to go to anybody else," he said, adding that while it may be good for the fans, losing yellow ain't no fun for him.

"Today there were many attacks at the beginning but we were finally able to set a steady pace; when those two went away, we were more than content. We didn't want to ride for the final sprint — that's why there were many attacks at the end — and as a result, I wasn't in the first group but I still kept the [yellow] jersey, so I'm happy with that."

Monday's stage is another flat leg down the western seaboard from Sitiawan to Banting, held over 209.4km.