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Flat, Fast and Frantic!
Today's stage in the Tour of Langkawi saw the Linda McCartney Pro Cycling Team at the business end of the action all day, but not able to pull off the stage win they yearn for.
There were only 135kms separating Kuantun and Kuala Rompin today, with no climbs more significant than a bump in the road and a side/crosswind blowing the field towards their target along Malaysia's east coast. It was always going to be a quick day, and the race rocketed over the finish line the thick end of an hour ahead of schedule.
It was a day for the sprinters and David McKenzie was licking his lips at the opportunity of repeating his stage win in 1999's edition of this race. He let his comrades know that he was up to the task ahead, and it was time they swung into gear. The team didn't need asking twice and were revved up at the prospect of propelling their man at the tape, so they began the time-honoured game of manoeuvring for position. There must have been eight or nine teams with similar intentions, and the final 10kms became a bizarre speeded-up dance, as dozens of riders tried to take their places at the front of the field. They were travelling at over 60kmh and danger was never far away, as when David McKenzie found himself bumping across the gravel on the road's apron, but he blasted his way back on to solid black tarmacadam.
Keeping his steed upright, the team's favoured sprinter took his place in his team-mates' wheel tracks as the flying multi-coloured event approached it's denouement. Suddenly, the cruellest of fates struck him down, as the fickle finger of fate once again pointed at the Linda McCartney riders.
"I must have picked up a sharp flint when I took my trip through the dirt," said a disappointed McKenzie at the finish. "There was a big bang and my back wheel was as flat as you like. How's that."
At only 2kms to the line, their chance looked to have blown away on the air fast escaping the flaccid tyre. But quick thinking Waterford boy Ciaran Power picked up the baton without a moment's hesitation, and took the responsibility across his slender shoulders. Bravely, he tussled with some of the world's quickest and fearless sprinters to land yet another top-10 finish for the squad. He finished a fine 8th.
He didn't quite have the power to carry himself around one of cycling's most notorious fastmen, Ivan "The Terrible" Quarranta of Italy. The conqueror of no lesser being than Super Mario Cipollini on two occasions at last year's Giro d'Italia took the stage.
Tomorrow's stage is not one that the survivors have been relishing. After an hour's drive along the hot, dusty highway, they will spill out of the team vehicles to tackle an astonishing 244kms of undulating Malaysian roads. The field will get out of the bed on the east coast and retire on the west.
Report by John Deering
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