February 6/99 1:02 am - Stage 4 Langkawi Report

Posted by Editor on 02/6/99
 

Report From Langkawi

Today was one for the books. The team raced almost a perfect race by putting Dominique Perras in the KOM leaders jersey and in 5th place overall. It all started with the whole team launching attacks after the first points sprints until Dominique broke clear of the group with Zesary Zamana of the Polish MROZ team. Right off the bat, the two started working well together until they eventually had a 9 min lead coming into the 20 km climb; 50 km from the finish. About 10 km from the foot of the climb a 11 man chase group was formed and was eating away at the two rider's lead. At the summit of the climb, Dominique took the KOM points to clench the jersey and during the long descent to the finish, was caught by the chase group and three new riders from the main pack; Taffi, McCormack and Andersen. With 10 kilometers to go the break was only 2 min. ahead of the decimated main field that was being pulled by the Cantina Tollo who obviously had nobody up in the lead group.

In the last kilometer, Stig Dam of the danish team launched an attack and was clear for the stage win. As for the yellow jersey, it now belongs to Micheal Andersen of Accept Card.

Tomorrow, we're looking at a shorter stage but two first category climbs that go up to 300 meters each. More of the same will be expected of the canadian team but with the added twist of trying to keep Dominique's KOM jersey.

Jacques Landry
Canadian team project manager