McCann solos to victory in Melaka opener

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David McCann (Giant Asia Racing Team) soloed to victory in stage one of the Melaka Governor Cup and earned the leader's jersey in the two-day event. The Irishman finished 10 seconds ahead of a nine-man chase group led in by Samuel Paul Witmitz (Le Tua Cycling Team).

"It's an honour to get the first stage win. During the last four races I've started I have won the first stage so I seem to be a bit on a roll," said McCann. "The heat was incredible today, though Thailand was as hot as it could get and I don't think it was as hot today but it's more humid and it was like it riding in a swimming pool... So hot.

McCann was part of a 16-man break which attacked early in the stage. "When you get a big group working like that it's difficult for the bunch to catch so the group went all the way to the finish, although there was a chase group later on with two of my teammates; Alex Coutts and Prajax Mahawong almost caught us. Maybe just 10km from the finish some attacks started, maybe at 5km everyone looked a little tired so I made an effort and nobody came with me so I finished on my own again."

McCann is confident that he'll successfully defend his lead on tomorrow's concluding stage. "It looks good for us [tomorrow]. We have a strong team now, although the guys are getting tired riding for me in yellow for a lot of different races. We've already done Tour of Taiwan, Tour of Thailand and Tour of Philippines which we finished a few days ago.

"Luckily it's only 125km [tomorrow] so it's short enough. Hopefully we can control the race. There's a lot of strong guys here which impress me, a lot of Malaysians are going really well for this race.

"There's 15 guys that can take me with just a few seconds, so we gotta keep everybody with us. I think we'll try to close the race down and make a bunch sprint and if that happens I should stay in yellow."