This morning at the Tour of Langkawi, all the talk was of yesterday's landmark Genting Highlands stage. With all the teams billeted at hotels in the resort in the clouds, the stage was discussed and dissected many times.

Matt Stephens of the Linda McCartney Pro Cycling Team must have lost count of the pats on the back and commiseratory words he received. It was generally thought that Matt had done everything within his power to win the stage, but it just wasn't to be.

There were many congratulations for team manager Keith Lambert, journalists, riders and other managers having reviewed the action during last night's TV broadcast and realised what a fantastic team performance Linda McCartney had produced.

"That was the hardest stage of the race, we've already been out there for ten days in hot, humid conditions and we were easily the best team on the day. The results of the stage prove that beyond doubt," reflected Keith.

Spencer Smith

Spencer Smith came of age on the mountain, bringing aid to his team-mates when they needed it most. People simply cannot believe that this is Spencer's first bike race. Not only his first international stage race, or even first professional race, but first race full stop!

"We have nailed the lie once and for all that being vegetarian is not a good thing for professional endurance sportsmen," said Spencer, in a defiant mood. "We've gone out and shown everyone what we can do. Now they have to accept us for what we are, and they have to concede that our lifestyle plays a massive part in our racing success, and it's not some flash-in-the-pan publicity stunt. Maybe they will have to concentrate on our results now, instead of forever asking us if we're a religious sect or something!"

Today was a very fast dash around Shah Alam, a suburb of Kuala Lumpur dominated by one of the world's biggest and most beautiful mosques. The day saw continual attacking and chasing, Matt Stephens managing to slip into the most threatening move that gained a minute on the bunch before he was reeled in. The McCartney riders need to be alert to the intentions of the Saturn team, who are only 9 seconds off of Linda McCartney's 3rd slot on the team classification. They are desperate to take something back to America having lost ground in the individual standings on the big mountain yesterday. Linda McCartney and Saturn fought out a great battle over the roads around Shah Alam today, with constant attacking and counter-punching, but in the end the McCartney boys got what they wanted: no change to the situation. Hard chasing meant that everything was brought together for a final sprint, won almost inevitably by Ivan Quarranta of Mobilvetta, completing a great hat-trick for the Italian.

Chris Horner of Mercury will surely now keep the yellow jersey that he defended so well at Genting, the race now awaiting it's final stage, 12 laps of Kuala Lumpur city centre tomorrow afternoon, live on TV in Malaysia and across Asia.