Italy's Alberto Loddo won a stage five mass sprint at the Tour de Langkawi to claim his second sprint success of the year.

The Tinkoff sprint specialist beat out Argentine Maximiliano Richeze and Swiss Aurélien Clerc after 139.9 kilometres of riding from Johor Bahru to Bandar Penawar.

Nicolas Roche, the son of former Tour de France champion Stephen Roche, led a break away 77 kilometres into Wednesday's racing, but was caught five kilometres from the finish line after South Africa led the charge from the front of the peloton.

Loddo then took command in the final kilometre to add to his stage four victory at last month's Tour of Qatar and bring his total to two wins in 2008.

Frenchman Matthieu Sprick again holds onto his one second overall lead from Australia's Mitchell Docker.

Stage six takes the riders 182.8-km from Bandar Penawar to Kuala Rompin.

STAGE FOUR

Veteran German sprinter Danilo Hondo of the Serramenti PVC team won stage four of the Tour of Langkawi in Batu Pahat.

The 33-year-old beat Mauro Richeze (Navigare) and Italian Marco Corsini to the line in a bunch finish after a 169km flat trek from Port Dickson.

After an active first hour, Hondo gained over 20 seconds on a lead group of 37 riders but that escape was reeled in by an active peloton.

Britain's Jeremy Hunt was part of a six-man group that launched a counter-attack but that was shortlived before David George, Francesco Tomei, Enrico Rossi and Simon Clarke looked to have made the decisive break inside the final 65km.

They led by two minutes inside the final 20km and were still 47 seconds ahead with four kilometres remaining only for the work of Tinkoff to reel them in as they went under the 1km to go kite to set up the bunch finish.

There was again no major changes on GC as Mathieu Sprick maintains his third second lead over Mitchell Docker following the big breakaway on stage one with Saturday's summit finish at Fraser's Hill likely to decide the overall victor.

STAGE THREE

Korea's Won Jae Lee was the surprise winner of stage three of the Tour of Langkawi in Banting.

The Seoul Cycling rider was part of a five-man breakaway that escaped after around 70km of the nine-day tour's longest stage of 209 kilometers.

He and his fellow unheralded escapees - Anuar Manan (Letua), Yan Dong Xing (Trek Marco Polo), Koji Fukushima (Meitan Hompo-GDR) and Mohd Fauzan Ahmad Lutfi (Malaysia National Team) - built up a lead in excess of four minutes and despite the work of Credit Agricole and Tinkoff held off the main pack.

Lee made an initial counter-attack inside the final 5km but was caught only to go again inside the 3km mark and hold off Manan with Xing third.

Alberto Loddo of Tinkoff led the peloton over the line, 1:09 back, with no major changes on GC as Mathieu Sprick maintains his third second lead over Mitchell Docker following the big breakaway on stage one.

STAGE TWO

Britain's Jeremy Hunt outsprinted a group of 10 to take the second stage of Tour de Langkawi in Sitiawan.

The veteran Credit Agricole rider (pictured riding for Unibet last season) raced home as the group broke clear with 5km to go to overtake early escapees Yoshimasa Hirose and Yukiya Arashiro.

Matthieu Sprick of Bouygues Telecom remains in yellow but he is now just three seconds ahead of Gustavo Cesar (Karpin Galicia) who was in the group of 10 that had a six second buffer over the peloton.

Stage three is another flat race as the riders make the 209.4km trek down the western seaboard from Sitiawan to Banting

STAGE ONE

Matthieu Sprick of Bouygues Telecom won the opening stage of the Tour of Langkawi

The young Frenchman was part of a 19-man breakaway that went away early on the 182.6km stage from Alor Star to Kepala Batas.

And he timed his run to the line to perfection as he had time to celebrate as he finished three seconds ahead of Mitchell Docker (Drapac Porche) and Diego Nosotti (NGC Medical - OTC).

The escapees finished over 23 minutes ahead of the peloton and now are likely to contest the overall honours in the nine-day event which features Pro Tour teams - AG2r La Mondiale, Bouygues Telecom and Credit Agricole.

The second stage will span 159.7km from Butterworth to Sitiawan in Perak.

Eurosport