Tour of Langkawi 2000: What a difference from Adelaide, I mean Adelaide was hot, but Malaysia is hot and humid. We all arrived safe and well after a long flight and a bumpy, hot journey by van. It was made slightly more uncomfortable by the fact that all of our luggage and bikes were on the back of a circa 1930's lorry with no back to it. The hotel was comfortable, I was welcomed by my resident lizard (Larry) who tried to make my stay as easy as possible.

The following day the race started with a 10km time trial, it was so hot and humid the guys were struggling for breath more than normal at the finish, it was essential they took two bidons of water and Extran on the bike and drank lots of liquid after to regain lost water and minerals. It was a tough opening for them to get used to.

After that first day they seemed to get into the swing of the weather quite nicely, with a couple of nightmare transfers, by coach, well when I say coach it was more like a cattle lorry, and ferry which a rough as you like, we were on track again. On the long stages we would make up at least 50 bidons, all water to begin with and then adding Extran as and when required, also 20 cans of coke and lemonade and lots of water. Race food was a bit more difficult to come by, the supermarkets over here are not good and finding something edible for the stages turned out to be a bit tricky. We bought some bread and jam, plus lots of sponge cake and fruit. Peanut butter and cereals for breakfast and chilli sauce for dinner, they can't get enough of the stuff, it makes very dull food taste great.

The race itself has just about as many staff as riders, the convoy alone is about 50 cars long, with two cars following we didn't need to feed from the roadside which has proved a brilliant move as there have been a few accidents and confusion in the peloton. How it works; well the team car with the manager goes behind the race and services anything that requires attention, the race radio keeps us informed as to whether riders need assistance, and the Soigneur's car sits behind the convoy of team cars ready if needed, usually if a break goes away the soigneur car will go up to the position of where the team car was and service the riders in the main peloton, leaving the team car free to cover the break, and then if stocks are getting low the team car will radio us and we will swap over eskies (cool boxes) and start all over again. It works well for a race like this as the riders keep rolling without the worry of having to slow for a feed, they simply call the car up and get whatever they require from it, even a little helpful tow sometimes on the end of a bidon, not one of ours though.

Most of the stages here are starting at 11am, this means for me up at 7am, get showered and then to work, preparing bidons and food for the day, we wake the riders at 7.30am for breakfast and try to grab something ourselves, then finish the preparations and pack the cars and vans with all of our kit, we have two vans and two team cars here, the vans for transporting bags and spare parts and the two cars for the races. Once all of that is done another call for the riders and then wait...and wait... and wait for them to come down and roll out for another day at the office.