Theo Bos took his third win on the Tour of Langkawi with victory on stage eight of the race in Marang in Malaysia.
A 202.6km stage from Kuantan to Marang started at 10.14am local time minus Christophe Kern of Europcar.
One of Kern's team mates - Morgan Lamoisson was in the first attack of the day, getting away as soon as the flag dropped and he was joined by Donaben Goh (OCBC), Elchin Asadov (Baku) and Jiang Zhi Hui (Giant Shimano).
They covered 42.5kms in the first hour of racing and had taken a 3.30 lead by the time, Asadov took the first sprint of the day at Kemaman after fifty kilometres.
At the second King Of the Mountains climb at Kijal after 82kms, Asadov added four points to the four he had taken on the first category four climb at Bukit Anak Dara, eleven kilometres earler.
Zhi Hui started to drop back and this left only three riders in front to contest the second sprint at Kerteh which Asadov did without too much fuss.
With a lead of 2.05, Asadov took the third and final sprint of the day at Dungun:to round off a day where he had taken maximum points in the climbs and the sprints.
The trip were now thirty seconds clear for the final fifteen kilometres and four kilometres later, Lamoisson was the last rider to be swept aside by the peloton heading for the finish line.
Inside the final three hundred metres as the road narrowed, there was a crash and race leader Mirsamad Pourseyedigolakhour hit the deck. Some of the sprint trains missed this crash and Belkin's Theo Bos surged to a victory in 5.01.58 ahead of Andrea Guardini (Astana) and Kenny van Hummel (Androni Giocattoli-Venezuela), followed by Kolar, Forster, Kruopis, Klemme, Martinez, Chicchi and Bertazzo.
"Beforehand we agreed that we wanted to win three stages together", said Bos to his team's website on his win. "We did that and we are very happy now, but there are still two stages left and hopefully we can achieve more good results."
Mirsamad Pourseyedigolakhour managed to finish and retains his leader's jersey going into stage nine with an eight second lead over Merhawi Kudus (Eri) MTN - Qhubeka.