Rising sprint star Caleb Ewan has finished second in his first international outing for 2015, stage one of the Tour of Langkawi today.

Ewan and ORICA-GreenEDGE entered the Malaysian eight-day race aware of Andrea Guardini’s previous dominance and the Astana rider didn’t disappoint, claiming the opening stage and his 15th in history at the Tour de Langkawi.

“Guardini definitely took the first scalp here,” sport director Matt Wilson said.

“It sounds like the guys did a pretty good job for Caleb, Adam Blythe dropped him off with 200m to go.  Guardini went at the same time and got the jump on him and that’s how they finished.

“It’s a little bit disappointing, but we knew Guardini would be a big stretch and there are a lot of chances still to come.”

The Tour’s first breakaway established within the first ten kilometres of racing.

Consisting of six riders - Kiel Reijnen (United Healthcare), Simone Andreetta (Bardiani - CSF Pro Team), Muhamad Othman (Terengganu Cycling Team), Guangtong Ma (Hengxiang Cycling Team), Meher Hasnaoui (Skydive Dubai Pro Cycling Team) and Liam Bertazzo (Southeast) – the group were given little room to play with as an attentive peloton, lead by ORICA-GreenEDGE and Astana, kept the gap around just two minutes.

After final individual attempts to hold on, the remains of the group were swept up by the chasing peloton with two kilometres to go, setting up the day’s expected sprint finish.

Dutchman Pieter Weening finished safely in the bunch in protection of his general classification ambitions.