Career best for Newton
CHRIS
Newton (Great Britain) achieved the best result of his career when he
finished second overall in the Malaysian Tour of Langkawi, coming in only
nine seconds down on winner Damian McDonald (Giant-Australian Institute
of Sport).
Newton collected a massive £10,000 for his second place, plus £1,500
for winning the climber's prize. He was never placed lower than second
overall throughout the 10-day tour, which opened with Great Britain's
victory in the team time trial.
The overall contest was decided on stage four. It was only 62 kilometres
long but 25 of them were uphill. The Genting Highland climb reared up
from a height of 200 metres to the summit finish at 1600 metres.
McDonald
attacked in the last three kilometres and went into a race-winning lead
after catching two early breakaways just 750 metres from the line.
Newton made a brave defence of his yellow jersey after suffering a bad
patch early on. He fought through it and finished impressively, moving
up rapidly to finish fifth at the summit. Although he lost the leader's
jersey, he only dropped to second overall, just 10 seconds down on McDonald.
The Giant-AIS and Great Britain teams were content to ride defensively
for the rest of the tour, which meant that most stages finished in high-speed
bunch sprints. This was where Rob Hayles came to the fore. He showed great
potential as a sprinter with a Cipollini-style stage win at Johor Bahru
and a string of top five placings in the last five days. He finished tired
but a good deal richer after a promising stage race debut. John Tanner
was also getting up in the sprints after crashing and puncturing while
wearing the yellow jersey on stage two.
Ireland's
Richie McCauley took a half stage but came in for some scathing criticism
from other riders after refusing to work in the winning break.
Newton started the final stage level on points for the mountains prize
with McDonald. But good lead-out work by the GB team ensured he was first
over the final climb to clinch the polka-dot jersey.
`I'm tired but not wrecked,' Newton said at the finish. `I can't praise
the lads in the team enough, they really worked their hearts out for me.'
Newton, who nearly quit the sport after suffering for three months with
a knee injury last season, was delighted with his first major success
after achieving numerous near misses.
The first-time promotion was organised at two months notice, with the
assistance of British promoters Sports Ambassador. Visiting teams were
impressed by the good roads, high-quality accommodation and a £250,000
prize list.
The
GB squad of Chris Newton, Bryan Steel, Matt Illingworth, John Tanner,
Simon Lillistone and Rob Hayles made a brilliant start to the 10-day Tour,
winning the opening team time trial.
Giant-AIS, the Australian national team were hot favourites, but blew
apart after strongman Paul Brosnan punctured with 10 kilometres to go.
Britain's sextet, based on the national team pursuit squad plus roadman
Tanner, clocked 46-04 for the 39.5-kilometre test to beat Giant by 41
seconds.
Tanner, the first GB rider across the line, took the yellow jersey, which
meant a bonus of £500 on top of the £2,500 stage prize.
The 23 six-man teams from 17 nations were then ferried from Langkawi
Island to the mainland for the first road stage from Kangar to Georgetown.
With 15 kilometres to go a bunch sprint was looking inevitable. Britain,
holding the first six places overall, were sitting pretty. Their troubles
started when Lillistone suffered a broken spoke and was dropped just as
the speed was hotting up.
The
field roared across the 15kilometre-long Penang Bridge and was just coming
on to an access road when an Australian hit the centre barrier, bringing
down five others, including yellow jersey Tanner. He quickly remounted
but needed service for a front wheel puncture. Hayles and Illingworth
dropped back for him and set off in pursuit of the bunch.
`Rob and Matt really drove me along, but then I punctured again, a back
tyre, on a drain joint,' said Tanner. After another change he dropped
his team-mates, closing to within 1-20 of the bunch.
New Zealander Glen Mitchell won the 100-man sprint, while Steel took
over the yellow jersey with Newton second. `I've never been in this position
before in a big race and I know I won't hold on to it, but I'm just going
to enjoy the experience,' said trackman Steel.
Sunday's third stage was a high-speed affair on wide, well-surfaced main
roads. Breakaways were impossible and all the British riders were safely
in the bunch for the massed sprint. Newton crossed the line just ahead
of Steel and duly took the leader's jersey - and a third £500 bonus
for the team.
With a week to go, Newton had no pretensions of overall victory. However,
Tanner would have been a realistic contender had he not crashed. But with
the mountains still to come, the British number one still had a chance
to get back into the reckoning.
Stage one: Langkawi TTT
1. GB 46-04
2. Giant-AIS 46-45
3. Denmark 47-15
4. South Africa 47-20
5. Australia u-23 47-29.
Stage two: Kangar-Georgetown
1. Glen Mitchell (New Zealand) 185km in 4-30-06
Stage three: Georgetown-Ipoh
1. Josef Christien (Switzerland) 172.5km in 4-14-47
Overall
1. Chris Newton (Great Britain) 9-29-43
2. Steel st; 3, Sweet at 4sec
3. Andersen at 13sec
4. Dennis at 15sec
Stage four: Tanjung Malim to Genting Highlands
1. Damian McDonald (Australia) GiantAIS 62.3km in 2-09-43
2. M. White (Aus) at 12sec
3. Jan Valach (Svk) at 16sec
4. B. Dennis (Aus) at 17sec
5. C. Newton (GB) at 25sec
Stage five: Kuala Lumpur-Malacca
1. Patrick Vetsch (Switzerland) 166km in 3-37-50
Stage six: Muar-Johor Bahru
1. Rob Hayles (Great Britain) 172km in 4-14-46
2. Sweet
Stage seven: Mersing-Kuantan
1. Patrick Vetsch (Switzerland) 203km in 4-39-35
Stage eight, part one: Kamunting-Paka
1. Richie McCauley (Ireland) 113km in 2-27-35
Stage nine: Kuala Terengganu-Kota Bharu
1. Jay Sweet (Australia) Giant-AIS 168km in 4-01-51
Stage 10: Langkawi circuit
1. Marc Jacobson (Denmark) 67km in 1-27-13
FINAL OVERALL
1. Damian McDonald (Australia) GiantAIS 34-21-22
2. C. Newton (GB) at 9sec
3. B. Dennis (Giant-AIS) at 12sec
4. M. White (Rust. u23) at 53sec
5. D. Ryder (SA) at 1-02
6. M. Gono (Aust. u-23) at 1-03
7. J. Valach (Svk) at 1-11
8. B. Hart (NZ) at 1-16
9. K. Martin (Giant-AIS) at 1-21
18, J. Tanner (GB) at 2-46
27, R. McCauley (Ire) at 5-11
55, B. Steel (GB) at 15-41
71, M. Illingworth (GB) at 24-22
73, R. Hayles (GB) at 25-30
74, T. Evans (Ire) at 26-55
75, S. Lillistone (GB) at 26-59
87, Sutcliffe at 35-23
Mountains.- Newton.
Points.- Sweet.
Team.Giant-AIS. |