Michael Kolar continued his impressive first professional season when he took his fourth top 4 result in today's 7th stage of the Tour de Langkawi. In the finale, his Tinkoff-Saxo team took control of proceedings but was swamped by Belkin, leaving their talented Slovakian to again settle for a minor placing.

Right from the beginning of his professional career, Michael Kolar has proved that he has the speed and tactical nous to mix it up with the best sprinters in the peloton. In this year's Tour de Langkawi, he has shown impressive consistency and today he took his fourth top 5 result in just 7 days of racing when he again finished fifth in the seventh stage.

Kolar benefited from a strong Tinkoff-Saxo team that took control in the technical finale but unfortunately, the train had hit the front a bit too early. When it mattered the most, Belkin came to the fore and Kolar again had to settle for a top 5 result.

However, Kolar has proved to be one of the most consistent sprinters in the race and today's result allowed him to move into 2nd in the points competition. His gap to new leader Aidis Kruopis (Orica-GreenEDGE) who finished 2nd for the second day in a row, was increased to four points but with three sprint stages coming up, Kolar remains very much in contention in the battle for the blue jersey.

“The boys did another good job in the finale but they started the lead-out a little too early," sports director Tristan Hoffman said. "Michael managed to hang on to the front anyway and made his way to 5th position. He has the ability and strength to do even better and we’ll keep aiming for that stage win until the final stage.

"Unfortunately, Jay (McCarthy) got an infection yesterday and on antibiotics he finally abandoned the race after having covered 200 kilometres today.”