No one had an easy day on Wednesday’s stage 6 at Le Tour de Langkawi, which resulted in a tight win for one of eight breakaway riders, Laurent Mangel of AG2R. The 24-year-old Frenchman from Burgundy attacked the break in the final kilometer and just hung on to beat the fast-closing Aussie neo-pro Gene Bates of Team LPR, with a second Frenchman, Yohann Le Boulanger of Bouygues TÈlÈcom, in third.

David George of South Africa retained the yellow jersey, but it was by no means a straightforward defense of his 1:57 overall lead on Selle Italia-Diquigiovanni’s second-place Italian rider Gabriele Missaglia. After working extremely hard in the first hour, three of George’s national team riders were dropped in the hilly portion of the 178.7km stage from Shah Alam to Tampin. They eventually regained contact, but they weren’t much help to their stronger teammates Ryan Cox and Darren Lill in chasing down the frequent attacks.

The day’s major break developed on two Cat. 2 climbs in the opening 55km, when Irishman David McCann of Giant-Asia went solo from an original six-man move that also contained Mangel and Navigators Insurance’s Californian Bernard Van Ulden. “We expected an aggressive start,” said Navigators team manager Ed Beamon, “so we tried to put guys in the breaks early on.”

Van Ulden, who was with Webcor last season, fell back when the action became even more serious on the second climb. McCann was eventually joined by five chasers, headed by Spanish climber JosÈ Elias of Relax-Gam, who started the day in seventh overall after finishing second on Tuesday’s mountain stage to Genting Highlands.

Also in the new break were Bates, Le Boulanger, Mangel and Bates’s Italian teammate Massimo Iannetti. When this sextet was joined by the aggressive Belgian GrÈgory Habeaux of Landbouwkrediet-Colnago and Japan’s Shinichi Fukushima with 105km still to race, the winning break had formed.

The hills had split the peloton into two, followed by a dozen stragglers. By the time some 80 riders regrouped with 80km left to race, the break was 2:30 ahead. The Panaria-Navigare teammates of Argentinean sprinter Ruben Bongiorno went to the front in an attempt to keep the break in check — but the stage 2 winner had only three teammates left and Panaria’s efforts lost steam in the final 30km

The brake took a maximum lead of 3:04, at which point the dangerous Elias was only 1:36 down on race leader George. Clearly, neither the South Africans nor the other top teams — CrÈdit Agricole and Navigators — could let the break develop any further.

Their efforts, combined with Panaria’s, cut the gap to just over a minute with 10km left. The peloton was still closing when McCann attacked the eight-man break approaching the final kilometer. He was countered by Fukushima, who in turn was passed by Mangel. Iannetti tried to close the gap for LPR teammate Bates, but Mangel had judiciously saved his energy for this final effort.

The rangy 6-foot-5 Frenchman, in his second year with AG2R, is a strong time trialist and the gap was big enough for him to cruise the final 50 meters waving his arms high in the air. The pursuing Bates was five bike-lengths behind as he crossed the line, while Bongiorno took the mass sprint for ninth place 11 seconds back.

At 188.2km, Thursday’s stage 7 from Muar to Kota Tinggi is the longest of Malaysia’s 10-day Tour de Langkawi. On the undulating course that has two categorized climbs, including Bandar Tenggara 35km from the finish, George and his South African national team will likely have another hard day in the saddle, while Navigators will be trying to get some bonus seconds for Cesar Grajales, who remains just one second out of third place.Results - STAGE 6 - Shah Alam - Tampin
1. Mangel, Laurent (FRA), Ag2r Prevoyance 4h16:53
2. Bates, Gene (AUS), LPR
3. Le Boulanger, Yohann (FRA), Bouygues Telecom
4. Habeaux, Gregory (BEL), Landbouwkrediet-Colnago
5. Fukushima, Shinichi (JPN), Japan
6. Elias Galindo, Jose (ESP), Relax-Gam, at 04
7. McCann, David (IRL), Giant-Asia, at 05
8. Iannetti, Massimo (ITA), LPR, at 08
9. Bongiorno, Ruben (ARG), Ceramica Panaria-Navigare, at 0:11
10. Radochla, Steffen (GER), Wiesenhof Akud, s.t.
FullResultsOverall
1. George, David (RSA), South Africa
2. Missaglia, Gabriele (ITA), Selle Italia Diquigiovanni, at 01:57
3. Bellotti, Francesco (ITA), Credit Agricole, at 02:19
4. Pedraza, Walter (COL), Selle Italia Diquigiovanni, s.t.
5. Grajales, Cesar (COL), Navigators Insurance, at 02:20
6. Sharman, Robin (GBR), Recyling.Co.Uk, at 04:20
7. Elias Galindo, Jose (ESP), Relax-Gam, at 04:23
8. Serpa, José (COL), Selle Italia Diquigiovanni, at 04:44
9. Lefevre, Laurent (FRA), Bouygues Telecom, at 04:54
10. Poilvet, Benoit (FRA), Credit Agricole, at 05:42
11. Raisin, Saul (USA), Credit Agricole, at 07:49
FullResults