Youcef Reguigui sprinted to eighth place in the sixth and shortest stage of the Tour de Langkawi. The MTN-Qhubeka p/b Algerian successfully defended his third place overall, just one position behind his team mate Natnael Berhane. Race leader Caleb Ewan (Orica-GreenEdge) won the mass sprint again to maintain his race lead, with Jakub Mareczko (Southeast) and Chris Sutton (Sky) second and third.

A four-man group got away directly from the start of the 96.6km long stage from Maran to Karak. It was caught again with only five km to go, and MTN-Qhubeka moved to the front of the field to help set up the bunch sprint.

Tomorrow will be the decisive stage for the GC and the team is looking forward to leave its mark on the final climb.

"With Astana and GreenEdge controlling the race today, we were able to recover a bit from yesterdays effort. This is important for the upcoming stage and we now look forward to it. It’s a new climb but I think it will be hard and the racing will be tough. We are in god positions in the GC and will try to go for the win tomorrow," sports director Michel Cornelisse said.