February 3/99 10:34 am - Tour Langkawi stage 1A results and GC after stage 1B

Posted by Editor on 02/3/99
 

Tour of Langkawi

Team Manager Jacques Landry will be sending in reports after each stage. Here are stages 1a and 1b.

Today was the first day of the Tour de Langkawi stage race. To start things off, there was a 9,2 km prologue lined with 10% hills, descents and fast rolling flat straightaways.

Contrary to our usual expectations, the Canadian team did not have the results we would have wished with Eric Wolhberg. Unfortunately, he crossed the line 43rd; a far cry from his usual top 5 prologue finishes. Truth be known that Eric had a hard day battling a stomach virus that was zapping his energy. The rest of the team, comprised of Sylvain Beauchamp, Andrew Randell, Czeslaw Lukaszcewizc, Dominique Perras and Rodney Henderson all performed very well considering the 38 C heat. The winning time was set by Lennie Kristensen from Denmark.

About 3 hours after Andrea Taffi crossed the time trial finish line the start gun went off for the 50 km criterium in the streets of Kuah on the island of Langkawi. The race went on with no real incident except for a few attacks; one lead off by a combined effort by Czeslaw & Rodney Henderson. The final bunch sprint was eventually won by Freddy Rodriguez from Mapei but followed closely by Graeme Miller from New Zeland who is on the top of his form.

We left the isle of Langkawi an hour after the criterium finish to reach the Malaysian mainland and eventually arrived in Kangar at the site of tomorrow's stage. Stage 3 is usually a quiet race that acts up after the brindge to Penang, about 20 kms from the finish. We'll see tomorrow if we can't shake things up. And the whole team is hoping that Eric's recovery will be a quick one...

Jacques Landry
Canadian team manager