THERE was an Irish win in the Tour of Malaysia yesterday as Richie McCauley beat Peter Wedge of Canada at the end of the first section of stage nine. After 110 kilometres up along the east coast from Kuantan to Paka, McCauley and Wedge were seven seconds ahead of American Shane Tellman with Tommy Evans, Aidan Duff, Declan Lonergan, Mel Sutcliffe and David Peelo all in the main pack at 51 seconds.
Approaching the finish McCauley and the Canadian forged ahead and in the sprint to the line, McCauley produced the better turn of speed to take the honours.
Barry Monaghan was involved in a crash just after the halfway point and although he changed on to a spare bike and finished, he was outside the time limit and was eliminated.
The second part of the stage was another 110 kilometres on to Kuala Trengganu and in a big bunch sprint, Evans was best of the Irish in 21st place with McCauley 26th. With two days to go, McCauley is 29th overall, four minutes and 37 seconds behind the Australian leader Damien McDonald, with Lonergan in 33rd spot.
