Tour de Langkawi: Arvid de Kleijn wins opening sprint at Kuala ...

Arvid de Kleijn (Tudor Pro Cycling) won the opening stage at the Tour de Langkawi, taking the event's first leader's jersey. Fastest in the bunch kick to the line, De Kleijn beat Sasha Weemaes (Human Powered Health) and Gleb Syritsa (Astana Qazaqstan Team) in Kuala Terengganu.

"Scrambling towards the finishing line, at one point, I thought I’d lose out to [Gleb] Syritsa due to his superior sprinting power. But being small, I managed to slip through, and I know I had a lot of speed with me…I’m happy to beat him," said De Kleijn.

De Kleijn now leads the overall classification by four seconds ahead of Weemaes and Tegsh-bayar Batsaikhan (Roojai Online Insurance). De Kleijn also leads the sprint classification, while Muhammad Nur Aiman Mohd Zariff (Terengganu Polygon Cycling Team) leads the mountains classification.

"Winning the two jerseys today, the Petronas Green and KBS Orange jerseys, was simply great. But it would be even nicer if I can keep the Green jersey right up after Stage 8," De Kleijn said.

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Kirsten Frattini is the Deputy Editor of Cyclingnews, overseeing the global racing content plan.

Kirsten has a background in Kinesiology and Health Science. She has been involved in cycling from the community and grassroots level to professional cycling's biggest races, reporting on the WorldTour, Spring Classics, Tours de France, World Championships and Olympic Games.

She began her sports journalism career with Cyclingnews as a North American Correspondent in 2006. In 2018, Kirsten became Women's Editor – overseeing the content strategy, race coverage and growth of women's professional cycling – before becoming Deputy Editor in 2023.

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