Theo Bos narrowly avoided a late crash to take his third stage win in the Tour de Langkawi when he won today's 8th stage. Despite having reached his pre-race target of three victories, the Dutchman has set his sights on more success in the final two stages.

Belkin Pro Cycling TEAM's plan was spot on again today in Malaysia's Tour de Langkawi. After five of the six riders worked, Theo Bos finished the job with a sprint win in Marang. 

In the 202-kilometre eighth stage, the Dutchman took his third victory of the race. Andrea Guardini (Astana) and Kenny van Hummel (Androni Giocattoli-Venezuela) finished second and third. 

After Rick Flens reeled in the break, Jack Bobridge, Steven Kruijswijk and Dennis van Winden worked. Graeme Brown led Bos to the head of the group with a powerful lead-out over 600 metres and hit the front with 150 meters remaining.

Bos said, "The last kilometre went exactly as planned." 

Bos was nearly brought down in a big crash that happened with 300m to go.

"I was lucky I was able to stay on my bike although I was touched by some riders when the crash happened, but I was able to stay on my bike. I had a good lead-out from Graeme Brown and again was in a good position to sprint for the win.

“With the corner to the left, I think at 500 metres there was a big crash. I nearly went down, I was so lucky. Graeme Brown saw it and waited and I came back. It was a bit of a hard effort and later I waited for a while and then we went.

“It’s a left hand corner and everybody wants to go in on the left hand side. The front takes the shortest way and there is a big bottle neck and then one guy can create it. I saw it and I thought that it would be dangerous but I was so lucky.”

The sprinter wants more, however. In the final two flat stages, he hopes to bag more success for the team.

"Beforehand we agreed that we wanted to win three stages together", said Bos. "We did that and we are very happy now, but there are still two stages left and hopefully we can achieve more good results." 

"It's a good feeling to have won my third stage this year to equal our record of three wins last year. That was our target."

Sports Director Michiel Elijzen agreed with Bos. He said that the team can take win number four in tomorrow's 109-kilometre stage from Bandar Permaisuri to Kuala Terengganu. 

"A breakaway held on several times this race and tomorrow is a short stage again, so the attackers will see opportunities," said Elijzen. "We will probably need to keep the race together along with the leader's team. Of course we want another sprint, because Theo has shown to be extremely quick."