Marco Haller had excellent support from his teammates in today's bunch sprint in the Tour de Langkawi but the Austrian failed to finish it off when he mistimed his final kick. Feeling in good condition, the Austrian is confident that he will be able to captalize on his form in one of the final four flat stages.

Marco Haller has had the rare chance to be the lead sprinter for Katusha in this year's Tour de Langkawi and the Austrian has tried to grab the chance with both hands. He got close to a win when he sprinted to 3rd behind the Belkin duo of Theo Bos and Graeme Brown on stage 2 but since then things have been more difficult for him.

Today he got another chance when the 6th stage ended in the predicted bunch sprint and again the team decided to play their Austrian card instead of focusing on their other sprinter, Alexander Porsev. Haller got excellent team support but mistimed his sprint and had to settle for 11th.

"Today the team provided me a great support, especially in the final, when Pavel Kochetkov, Pavel Brutt and Aleksadr Porsev did a perfect lead-out for me in the last kilometer," he said. "Maybe, I underestimated the headwind and started my rush too early, that's why the final result was far from the best one. But anyway, I had really good feelings today during the stage and in the final. I feel my shape is growing every day, so I am sure that Aleksandr Porsev and 1 can get some more chances in the next days."

At 230km, tomorrow's stage is another long affair but it is expected to come down to another bunch sprint.