Malaysia: Stage1 Melaka Governor Cup 2010 Results and Photos

Written by: Lin Ruobai
Date: Sat Apr 24 2010

Malaysia: Today marked the first stage of the Melaka Governor Cup. Today's stage took a whole bunch of extremely hot cyclists around Taman MBMB, Bukit Serindit for a distance of 167.3km . . .

David McCann took another convincing win in the final kilometers. Photo© Pulse Media Communications

David McCann (Giant Asia Racing Team) is becoming somewhat of a household name in Asia with stage wins in this years Tour of Thailand, the overall at the Tour of Taiwan, and today's stage in the Melaka Governors Cup. McCann took todays stage in 4:01:03 ahead of Samuel Paul Witmitz (Le Tua Cycling Team) and Matnur (Polygon Sweet Nice).

Speaking with the top three riders after the race, starting with McCann, he stated; “It’s an honour to get the first stage win. For the last 4 races I’ve started I have won the first stage so I seem to be a bit on a roll. The heat was incredible [in Malaysia] today, though Thailand was as hot as it could get and I don’t think it was as high as that today but it’s more humid. It was like it riding in a swimming pool . . . so hot."

He continued “We had a big 16 man group which went quite early on at maybe the 10k point. Everybody worked and when you get a big group working like that it’s difficult for the bunch to catch up, so the group went all the way to the finish, although there was a chase group later on with two of my team-mates; Alex Coutts and Prajax Mahawong who almost caught us. Maybe just 10k from the finish some attacks started,and at about 5km everyone looked a little tired so I made an effort and nobody came with me so I finished on my own again. It looks good for us [tomorrow], we have a strong team now, 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. We finished a few days ago so we're a little bit tired, but luckily it’s only about 125km so it’s short enough. Hopefully we can control the race from here. There’s a lot of strong guys here which impresses me, and a lot of Malaysians are going really well. This must be a big race for them and as I said there was 15 other guys not far behind me, so there are a lot of people to watch, but yeah we’ll try our best to keep it up."

Further explaining his tactics for tomorrow, McCann explained: "There’s 15 guys that can take me with just a few seconds, so we gotta' keep everybody with us. So I think we try to close the race down and make a bunch sprint and if that happens I should keep in yellow.”

Stage one podium (l-r) Samuel Paul Witmitz, David McCann and Matnur (Polygon Sweet Nice). Photo© Pulse Media Communications

We also heard from Samuel Paul Witmitz from the LeTua Cycling Team: “It was very-very quick from the start, this is my first Asian race and I wasn’t really ready for the amount of attacks at the start but once we combined the two groups that were at the front together, it’s good that we get enough time early on the peloton to actually stay away for the day, cos the peloton was coming back pretty quick in the end."

“I found it pretty tough out there. I haven’t raced in this heat before and for the last 20km I was cramping in, like, every muscle in my leg. My team-mate Mark O’Brien had an excellent last 5km and pretty much sacrificed his race to try and bring back Dave (David McCann) so if it wasn’t for Mark I wouldn’t have got up for second place, I was very-very happy and Mark is very happy as well that we get a result in the end."

Mr. Witmitz continued: "It’s up to the Giant Asia Team to control the race cos' they have the yellow jersey. We’ll watch Dave pretty closelyand hopefully we’ll stay all together and come to a bunch sprint, cos' the strongest part of my riding is my sprint so I like to see a bunch sprint in the end . . . Dave is riding really well and it will be hard to beat him tomorrow but we’ll give it a go.”

Matnur of Polygon Sweet Nice had this to say: “I am very happy for my position today. It’s a tough competition from Giant Asia and Malaysian riders especially from the Kuala Lumpur Team. I hope to get a better position tomorrow with the good help from my team-mates.”

Stage 1 Top 20

MCCANN, DAVID GAR
2 SAMUEL PAUL WITMITZ L2A
3 MATNUR PSN
4 MOHD SHAHRUL, MAT AMIN ATM
5 OTHMAN, MOHD ADIQ HUSAINIE MAS
6 WAN MOHD NAJMEE, WAN MOHAMAD WP
7 RUSLI, AMIR MUSTAFA MAS
8 MOHD ZAMRI, SALLEH ATM
9 SETIAWAN, IWAN CCC
AHMAD FALLANIE, ALI
JAYA, HERWIN
MOHD SAUFIE, MAT SENAN TRG
MARK O' BRIEN L2A
MOHD FADHLI ANWAR, MOHD FAUZI ATM
SYAHBANA, A. AGUNG CCC
MAHAWONG, PRAJAK GNT
SUHARDI, HASSAND
INAWAN, RASTRA PATRIA
COUTTS, ALEX GNT
JUNAIDI HASHIM OSC

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