{"id":914186,"date":"2026-09-29T15:00:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T15:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/914186\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T15:00:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T15:00:10","slug":"pickrell-takes-another-2nd-at-tour-de-langkawi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/914186\/","title":{"rendered":"Pickrell takes another 2nd at Tour de Langkawi"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While we Canadian cycling fans were laser-focused on the <a href=\"https:\/\/cyclingmagazine.ca\/sections\/news\/8-amazing-moments-from-the-2026-montreal-worlds\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">awesome performances of Team Canada at the road worlds,<\/a> Victoria\u2019s Riley Pickrell was busy coming close to spoiling Matteo Malucelli\u2019s day at the 2026 Le Tour de Langkawi on Sunday, and then once again on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>The Italian sprinter took the opening stage in Kampar, but it was fellow fastman Pickrell who was\u00a0alongside him in a frantic finish after 193 km of racing from Shah Alam. Fernando Gaviria was third. Malucelli, also took the overall lead and sprinter\u2019s jersey.<\/p>\n<p>An unpredictable sprint<\/p>\n<p>It was hardly the straightforward start Malucelli had planned. He injured his hand during training on Saturday, then watched teammate Aaron Gate crash on the final corner before the sprint.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m surprised and happy because I was injured yesterday, and my hand still hurts,\u201d Malucelli <a href=\"https:\/\/www.letourdelangkawi.my\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">said<\/a>. \u201cI even saw Aaron (Gate) lose control and crash.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The XDS-Astana rider credited Gleb Syritsa with getting him into position for the sprint.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy teammate brought me to the front. They worked hard along the route today and controlled the tempo at the front of the peloton well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Even the riders involved weren\u2019t sure who had won immediately after the sprint.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen crossing the finish line, neither my rival (Pickrell) nor I were sure who had won, but once he signaled to me, I knew for certain that I had won,\u201d Malucelli said.<\/p>\n<p>Stage 2 and 3<\/p>\n<p>Lennart Jasch of Tudor Pro Cycling Team took Stage 2, which was too hilly for the sprinters.<\/p>\n<p>Then, on Tuesday, it was another duel between the Italian and Canadian. Malucelli and Pickrell went 1-2 again on Stage 3 from Sungai Petani to Kuala Kangsar, a 189.7-km stage.<\/p>\n<p>Pickrell remains second in the points classification, with Malucelli leading.<\/p>\n<p>Tomorrow\u2019s Stage 4 from Meru Raya to Cameron Highlands is unlikely to suit the Canadian sprinter. The 142.3-km stage finishes with a brutal summit climb, meaning Pickrell will likely be looking to conserve his legs and make it to the finish with the gruppetto and saving his legs for the next chance, either Stage 6 or 7.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While we Canadian cycling fans were laser-focused on the awesome performances of Team Canada at the road worlds,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":914187,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,128738,82,165253],"class_list":["post-914186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-riley-pickrell","tag-sports","tag-tour-de-langkawi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=914186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/914187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=914186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=914186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=914186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}