Description
October 1, 2026
30th Petronas Le Tour de Langkawi 2026 🇲🇾 (2.Pro) ME – Stage 5 – Tapah – Genting Highlands : 125,7 km
Le Tour de Langkawi is a UCI ProSeries 2.Pro multi-stage road race across Malaysia,
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October 1, 2026
30th Petronas Le Tour de Langkawi 2026 🇲🇾 (2.Pro) ME – Stage 5 – Tapah – Genting Highlands : 125,7 km
Le Tour de Langkawi is a UCI ProSeries 2.Pro multi-stage road race across Malaysia, combining flat coastal roads, rolling countryside and demanding mountain stages. The route typically features eight stages of roughly 100–200 km, with substantial variation in terrain and rhythm. Most stages are predominantly paved and fast, with long straight sections and open roads, while the hillier stages introduce sustained climbs that can reach gradients of 8–12%, followed by technical descents and rapid transitions into valleys. High temperatures, humidity and tropical rainfall can add significant environmental difficulty, particularly on longer stages. Positioning is important on exposed roads and before climbs, while sudden changes in weather can alter road conditions and the pace of the peloton. Breakaways often form early, with the main field controlling the advantage before increasing the tempo toward key climbs or finishing circuits. Mountain stages can create substantial gaps, while flatter stages allow groups to regroup and favor sprinters. Stage finishes can range from bunch sprints to reduced-group battles or solo attacks after the principal climbs.
Nicolas Breuillard (TotalEnergies) bounced back from illness earlier in Le Tour de Langkawi to claim the final summit finish of the eight-stage race, winning in the Genting Highlands on stage 5 after dropping his break companion Josh Burnett (Burgos-Burpellet BH) in the final kilometres, and holding off a chase including GC leader Lennart Jasch (Tudor Pro Cycling).
Jasch crossed the line in third place, 21 seconds behind Breuillard and 13 seconds back from second-placed Burnett. Neither were any threat to his overall lead, which he carved out in spectacular style on stage 2.
On Thursday Jasch, also with the help of the third-place time bonus, extended his lead on Abel Balderstone (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) to 26 seconds and put Jan Castellon (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA ) 42 seconds behind. It’s going to now be hard to budge the first-year professional from that top spot given the flat terrain ahead.
“The race isn’t over yet but we are a big big step closer to the finish line in terms of the GC I would say,” said Jasch in a post stage interview.
For Breuillard and TotalEnergies, the team of last year’s overall winner Joris Delbove, it was a welcome turn of fortunes for the rider and squad. They first had to give their team leader, Jordan Jegat, over as a late replacement for the French team at the Road World Championships, then they lost a retiring Geoffrey Bouchard to a stage 1 crash and then Breuillard had his problems too.
“I came here for the GC and I fell sick in the start of the day in Malaysia, after this I wanted to win a stage, and I’m very happy with that,” said the French rider, who made his intentions clear on stage 5 when he went out into the break with a teammate Valentin Retailleau alongside, who helped pull out the margin between the peloton and the break to around five minutes at the start of the 22km climb.
How it unfolded
The 125.7km stage from Tapah to the Genting Highlands started with 111 riders and among those missing was the key GC hope for Picnic PostNL, Mattia Gaffuri, who was caught up in a crash early on stage 4 but rode on and finished with the front group of contenders to retain his seventh spot overall. However, he’d done it with a broken hand.
“He was really motivated for these two days, but yeah, yesterday, showed a really good spirit to fight to the finish, so he did more than 120k with the hand broken and still held a group of 30 guys,” Picnic PostNL sports director Melvin Rulliere told Cyclingnews ahead of the stage.
That meant there was plenty of incentive for both Picnic PostNL and many other teams that hadn’t had the race go their way so far to play an aggressive hand. This was the last chance for the climbers to make a real difference as the road wound its way up through the lush jungle and once again to the top of the hors catégorie climb, which rounded off an otherwise flat stage.
The fierce efforts to get in the break even caused a brief split in the peloton at one point, which Jasch was on the wrong side of.
Among an early escape there was Matthew Peace (Picnic PostNL), Nicolas Breuillard and Valentin Retailleau of (TotalEnergies) and Mervin Corpuz (7/Eleven Cliqq) but they were pulled back in at 13km to go and then a whole new round of attacking began.
Finally a group of six was established up front with Breuillard and Retailleau again part of the group, along with Fernando Gaviria (Caja Rural-Serguros RGA), Josh Burnett and Rodrigo Alvarez (Burgos Burpellet-BH) and Robin Carpenter (Modern Adventure).
Edward Cruz (Bardiani CSF 7 Saber) also ultimately made the junction, but not surprisingly sprinter Gaviria fell away as the climbing began. Retailleau, who was working for teammate Breuillard, also fell away after putting in a huge volume of work to set his teammate up with as big a gap as possible, which ended up being five minutes near the bottom of the climb.
Others fell away and ultimately it came down to Burnett and Breuillard out the front, with Burnett at times virtually threatening Jasch’s lead. However in the final kilometres the Burgos-Burpellet rider from New Zealand fell away from his break companion. Though he didn’t let the gap stretch far, holding off the pursuing group behind which Jasch lead over the line. The race leader crossed the line just ahead of Castellon and then a further two seconds back it was José Manuel Díaz (Burgos-Burpellet-BH) and Balderstone.
Results :
 ME - Stage 5 </strong> - Tapah - Genting Highlands : 125,7 km
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Le Tour de Langkawi is a UCI ProSeries 2.Pro multi-stage road race across Malaysia, combining flat coastal roads, rolling countryside and demanding mountain stages. The route typically features eight stages of roughly 100–200 km, with substantial variation in terrain and rhythm. Most stages are predominantly paved and fast, with long straight sections and open roads, while the hillier stages introduce sustained climbs that can reach gradients of 8–12%, followed by technical descents and rapid transitions into valleys. High temperatures, humidity and tropical rainfall can add significant environmental difficulty, particularly on longer stages. Positioning is important on exposed roads and before climbs, while sudden changes in weather can alter road conditions and the pace of the peloton. Breakaways often form early, with the main field controlling the advantage before increasing the tempo toward key climbs or finishing circuits. Mountain stages can create substantial gaps, while flatter stages allow groups to regroup and favor sprinters. Stage finishes can range from bunch sprints to reduced-group battles or solo attacks after the principal climbs.
Nicolas Breuillard (TotalEnergies) bounced back from illness earlier in Le Tour de Langkawi to claim the final summit finish of the eight-stage race, winning in the Genting Highlands on stage 5 after dropping his break companion Josh Burnett (Burgos-Burpellet BH) in the final kilometres, and holding off a chase including GC leader Lennart Jasch (Tudor Pro Cycling).
Jasch crossed the line in third place, 21 seconds behind Breuillard and 13 seconds back from second-placed Burnett. Neither were any threat to his overall lead, which he carved out in spectacular style on stage 2.
On Thursday Jasch, also with the help of the third-place time bonus, extended his lead on Abel Balderstone (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) to 26 seconds and put Jan Castellon (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA ) 42 seconds behind. It's going to now be hard to budge the first-year professional from that top spot given the flat terrain ahead.
"The race isn't over yet but we are a big big step closer to the finish line in terms of the GC I would say," said Jasch in a post stage interview.
For Breuillard and TotalEnergies, the team of last year's overall winner Joris Delbove, it was a welcome turn of fortunes for the rider and squad. They first had to give their team leader, Jordan Jegat, over as a late replacement for the French team at the Road World Championships, then they lost a retiring Geoffrey Bouchard to a stage 1 crash and then Breuillard had his problems too.
"I came here for the GC and I fell sick in the start of the day in Malaysia, after this I wanted to win a stage, and I'm very happy with that," said the French rider, who made his intentions clear on stage 5 when he went out into the break with a teammate Valentin Retailleau alongside, who helped pull out the margin between the peloton and the break to around five minutes at the start of the 22km climb.
<strong>How it unfolded</strong>
The 125.7km stage from Tapah to the Genting Highlands started with 111 riders and among those missing was the key GC hope for Picnic PostNL, Mattia Gaffuri, who was caught up in a crash early on stage 4 but rode on and finished with the front group of contenders to retain his seventh spot overall. However, he'd done it with a broken hand.
"He was really motivated for these two days, but yeah, yesterday, showed a really good spirit to fight to the finish, so he did more than 120k with the hand broken and still held a group of 30 guys," Picnic PostNL sports director Melvin Rulliere told Cyclingnews ahead of the stage.
That meant there was plenty of incentive for both Picnic PostNL and many other teams that hadn't had the race go their way so far to play an aggressive hand. This was the last chance for the climbers to make a real difference as the road wound its way up through the lush jungle and once again to the top of the hors catégorie climb, which rounded off an otherwise flat stage.
The fierce efforts to get in the break even caused a brief split in the peloton at one point, which Jasch was on the wrong side of.
Among an early escape there was Matthew Peace (Picnic PostNL), Nicolas Breuillard and Valentin Retailleau of (TotalEnergies) and Mervin Corpuz (7/Eleven Cliqq) but they were pulled back in at 13km to go and then a whole new round of attacking began.
Finally a group of six was established up front with Breuillard and Retailleau again part of the group, along with Fernando Gaviria (Caja Rural-Serguros RGA), Josh Burnett and Rodrigo Alvarez (Burgos Burpellet-BH) and Robin Carpenter (Modern Adventure).
Edward Cruz (Bardiani CSF 7 Saber) also ultimately made the junction, but not surprisingly sprinter Gaviria fell away as the climbing began. Retailleau, who was working for teammate Breuillard, also fell away after putting in a huge volume of work to set his teammate up with as big a gap as possible, which ended up being five minutes near the bottom of the climb.
Others fell away and ultimately it came down to Burnett and Breuillard out the front, with Burnett at times virtually threatening Jasch's lead. However in the final kilometres the Burgos-Burpellet rider from New Zealand fell away from his break companion. Though he didn't let the gap stretch far, holding off the pursuing group behind which Jasch lead over the line. The race leader crossed the line just ahead of Castellon and then a further two seconds back it was José Manuel Díaz (Burgos-Burpellet-BH) and Balderstone.
<strong>Results : </strong>
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