By winning the final stage, Andrea Guardini took his record of stage wins in the Tour de Langkawi up to 14. However, the Italian only came away from this year's race with two victories and he lamented the technical finishes that had made it difficult for him to add more wins to his tally.

Astana's Andrea Guardini brought his record of stage wins in the Tour de Langkawi to 14 when he won today's final stage of the Malaysian race. The win brought a frustrating string of 2nd place to an end and proved that the fast Italian has the speed to beat quadruple stage winner Theo Bos.

Guardini registered his second victory of this year's race, which was also his Astana team's second of the season, to add to his victory in Stage Three from Kampar to Kuala Lumpur and extended his record on a day when Bos of Belkin Pro Cycling only strolled home in 13th.

“At 300 metres I was third behind Theo [Bos] and I started my sprint because I wanted to stay close. I went maybe so far from the finish, but it was enough to win today.

“Dyachenko and Arman [Kamyshev] chased the breakaway, perfect! Then Gruzdev and Ruslan [Tleubayev] put me at the front until 1k to go. I sprinted early today to stay close to the leaders and it was a long, long way to the finish."

Guardini has failed to repeat his previous success this year and he wrote it down to the technical nature of the sprint finishes.

“The last few stages were confusing and dangerous for me – 200km all day straight on one road, then two turns in the last 250m for the sprint. I’m happy to take a second victory at the Tour de Langkawi this year, and I am ready to go back and race in Belgium.

“Theo has shown his shape every day and his team was really strong in the stage finishes, but I am in a good condition now. I was a little bit angry because there are maybe two finishes a little bit difficult to make my sprint. For my sprint I need to have 200 or 250 metre straight and in the last eight or nine stages there is one curve near to the finish line.

"So those kind of stages suited Bos, who also had a strong team to put him in good positions. Today, when I had a chance in a sprint that suited me, I am happy to have delivered the win. Today they (Belkin) worked really well, but then my teammates did a really good job to put me in a perfect situation behind his wheel."