The pattern at Petronas Le Tour de Langkawi in recent years has been clear: the rider who wins the queen stage wins the race, but after Thursday's race to the top of Fraser's Hill, there is no sign that the rivals of race leader and stage 5 winner Joris Delbove (Total Energies) are ready to concede defeat. The gaps are too tight for that.
Delbove may have roared toward the line to take a solo victory, but even though the attacks kept flying on the climb, it was a leading group of around 20 riders that were heading to the line in the final kilometres, with Delbove only getting away within three kilometres of the finish and holding a gap of just two seconds to the sprinting chasers behind.
