Shah Alam:Italian cyclist Matteo Malucelli from XDS Astana Team overcame the pain of a pre-race training crash to win Stage 1 of the Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) 2026, which spanned from Shah Alam to Kampar.

According to BERNAMA News Agency, the 32-year-old sprinter edged out competitors Riley Pickrell of Modern Adventure Pro Cycling and Fernando Gaviria of Caja Rural-Seguros RGA in a high-speed bunch sprint. Malucelli clocked four hours, six minutes, and 53 seconds to claim both the overall leader's orange jersey and the sprinter classification blue jersey.

Malucelli had been sent to the hospital for precautionary scans after his crash, but was cleared to race. Despite this setback, he demonstrated exceptional performance, which he attributed to the strategic efforts of his teammates who guided him through challenging corners leading into the final stretch.

This victory marked Malucelli's 23rd career win, following his recent success at the Tour of Taihu Lake in China. He expressed his intention to improve on last year's performance at the LTdL, aiming to finish the tour this time around.

In other race developments, Petr Rikunov from the China Development Team secured the King of the Mountains (KOM) polka-dot jersey with four points. Meanwhile, TSG's Muhammad Nur Aiman Rosli was named the Best Asian Rider.

Stage 2 of the race will continue with a challenging 145.6km route from Taiping to a summit finish at Gunung Jerai.