Time not on Kristoff’s side but he still sees milestone moment coming

KEMAMAN: Norwegian cycling legend Alexander Kristoff (pic) is not ready to wave the white flag just yet, even as time is running out for him to achieve his long-awaited milestone of 100 career stage victories.

Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) has reached its halfway point with only four stages remaining, and Kristoff is still searching for his first win in this year’s race.

His best result so far came in Stage Three from Gerik to Pasir Puteh on Tuesday, where he was overtaken in the final metres by XDS Astana’s Matteo Malucelli and had to settle for second place.

The fourth stage yesterday was also a tough one for the Uno-X Mobility rider, who finished 11th.

For Kristoff, the disappointment from the previous day was quickly put behind him and had no impact on his performance yesterday. However, a tactical error in the final stretch saw him and his teammates miss out on victory in Stage Four.

Fortunately, one of his teammates, Erlend Blikra, managed to push forward and finish third behind stage winner Matteo Malucelli and Team Polti VisitMalta’s Manuel Penalver.

“Malucelli is very fast. He won again today, so that’s three stage victories for him now. He’s definitely the man to beat here. We’ll try again, but honestly, we didn’t perform well today. We weren’t really close to winning, although Alan did well to finish third. It was a good effort, but we could have done much better,” said Kristoff.

Kristoff’s chances of challenging for the green jersey, currently held comfortably by Malucelli, also appear slim with a time gap of 30 seconds.

Still, the 37-year-old, who has a Tour de France stage win to his name, remains calm and optimistic that fortune may still favour him.

“Malucelli looks really strong, so it’s going to be tough. But we’re not giving up yet – there are still a few days to go, and we have to keep fighting.

Kristoff, however, has also come to terms with the possibility that he might not reach his 100-win milestone in LTdL, which is set to be the final race of his illustrious career before retirement.

“Even if I don’t reach 100 pro wins, I already have more than 100 UCI victories, so it doesn’t really matter,” he added.