Guardini struggling to repeat Langkawi sprint success

Guardini finished third to Theo Bos (Blanco) in the opening stage, second to Bos in Stage 2 and a close second to Francesco Chichhi (Vini Fantini-Selle Italia) in Sunday's fourth stage.

In the 2011 and 2012 editions of Le Tour de Langkawi, Guardini, racing for Vini Fantini, dominated the sprints, eclipsing Australian Graeme Brown's record of 10 stage wins.

While 2013 has seen Guardini make the step up to the WorldTour ranks with Astana, the 23 year old is yet to perfect his sprint amongst the higher level competition in this year's Malaysian tour.

"There is so much competition this year in Langkawi, more than last year," Guardini told Cycling Central as the result of having five WorldTour teams in at the event.

Guardini's second position in Sunday's sprint earned him enough points to take the sprint classification lead from race leader Meiyin Wang (Hengxian), but the Italian says it is no consolation for his lack of stage wins.

"I'm not so happy today because I wanted to win," said Guardini after the fourth stage.

"I did a good sprint, but at 100m to go I looked at Chicchi on my wheel and he was a bit fast for me. The last 20m he passed me."

After opening his season with the Santos Tour Down Under, and then contesting the Tour of Qatar, Guardini has arrived in Malaysia with good form but has not been able to transfer that into a result.

"I'm feeling good, I'm in good condition, but the sprint jersey is not enough.  I do something a little bit wrong every day, and this is the reason that I don't win."

The condition is good, there are some much stage for me, the opponents are so strong...but will also my day in @myltdl #ltdl2013 !!! 😠😠😉😉👍👍

— Andrea Guardini (@AndreaGuardini) February 24, 2013