Tour de Langkawi: Culey rides breakaway to stage 1 success

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Marcus Culey upset the peloton on stage 1 of the Tour de Langkawi on a day for the breakaway. The Australian held off a charging peloton led by Travis McCabe (Floyd's) by five seconds to secure victory. The win was Culey's first and the biggest yet for his Malaysian Sapura team.

"You always dream of winning a pro race and for a Malaysian team like Sapura, this is the race you would dream to win for the team. You dream about it but I had no thought about it coming into this stage or this race that I would get a win for myself," Culey told Cyclingnews.

Culey also took the yellow jersey with his stage win and leads Brendon Davids (Oliver's) in the general classification by nine seconds with McCabe third at 12 seconds.

The win was a boon for Sapura who are aiming for overall success via last year's runner-up, Ben Dyball, and will be hoping to transfer the yellow jersey from the shoulders of Culey to Dyball following stage 4 up Genting Highlands.

Culey, 25, rode all bar 15km of the stage in the breakaway, outlasting his three companions for the victory. Culey has spent the last two and half weeks training in Malaysia, using the experience to his advantage over the peloton but only inside the final 500 metres did he consider the job done.

"To be honest, not until the last kilometre (did I think I would win), the last five hundred metres when I looked back and I couldn't see the bunch. I was probably relieved to be honest," Culey said. "I couldn't believe it until I crossed the line. I am sure the joy will come tonight."

With his unexpected win in the pocket, Culey turns his attention to helping teammate Dyball in the bid for overall victory. McCabe, though, is looking ahead for further opportunities to add to his Tour de Langkawi win tally.

"All these stages suit me really well," McCabe told Cyclingnews. "I like the heat and humidity, I perform well in it so I am not too worried about it. I want to win and represent Floyd's and I have five more chances to make it happen."

Stage 2 of the race is the longest of the 2019 edition at 200.6km from Senawang to Melaka and is expected to suit a bunch sprint finish.

How it unfolded

In the shade of the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Bin Mohamad, the architect behind both race and the iconic buildings, was on hand to see off the 131-rider peloton en route to Tampin.

Following a number of early attempts in the 176.9km stage, the day's breakaway formed after the first of the four categorised climbs. Brendon Davids of Oliver's and Marcus Culey (Sapura) forcing the move. Soon Young Kwon (KSPO) followed with Angus Lyons doubling the numbers of Oliver’s riders in the breakaway.

Behind the breakaway, the peloton was splitting on the winding roads from Selangor state into Negeri Sembilan and was at a maximum, nine minutes in arrears. By the third categorised climb a little over halfway into the stage, the lead dropped to under seven minutes despite further splintering in the peloton. The stage harder than it looked on paper. At the head of the race, Kwon lost contact with the leaders as the peloton pegged back the gap to a manageable five minutes via the work of Floyd's. The new Continental team aiming to set up McCabe for stage victory.

The Oliver's duo in the break secured the KOM via Lyons while Davids won all three intermediate sprint points for important bonus seconds but the efforts left them empty for the final. "Angus and I rode a bit too hard, we got a bit too excited. It is a little bit frustrating that I didn't quite have the legs to go at the end," Davids explained to Cyclingnews.

In the closing 20 kilometres as Davids faded, Culey made his move. The Australian outlasting the chase effort, enjoying time to sit up, adjust his jersey and soak in the moment of his first career victory. McCabe then nudged out Clint Hendricks in the sprint for second place from a group of 49-riders. Over 18 minutes later, a group including Andrea Guardini and the major sprinters rolled over the line in a hot and humid Tampin.

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