2nd October – Stage 5: Temerloh – Fraser’s Hill
The queen stage of the Tour de Langkawi saw Team Picnic PostNL start with three riders, after Dillon Corkery withdrawing from sickness ahead of stage three and Christiaan van Rees unfortunately unable to start the day’s stage due to the crash the previous day. Nonetheless, the remaining trio of Oliver Peace, Matt Dinham and Patrick Eddy were motivated to give it their best as a unit on the long climb to the line.
A break of six went up the road and the main GC teams took control in the peloton. Keeping those ahead in check, the gap was around one minute and 30 seconds as they started what was a 27 kilometre rise to the line. It was a race of attrition as the pace ramped up and riders dropped from the peloton, with the breakaway caught. Making a turn onto the steeper part of the ascent and the beginning of the categorised section with eight kilometres to go, the bunch had drastically thinned. On his return to racing Dinham battled hard as the attacks peppered the front of the race, but he eventually had to let go of the wheels at around two kilometres to go. Fighting all the way to the finish, he managed to cross the line around 30 seconds behind the stage winner on the day.
Dinham said: “Today was the queen stage and Ollie and I were pretty motivated going into it. I wanted to test where I was at but still knowing I’m far from my previous top form. We are down to three guys after Christiaan’s crash yesterday and that made the fight for position quite difficult today and I think we burnt a bit too much before the final really kicked off. In the end I just tried to follow the lead group until I couldn’t anymore. I was hoping for more of a consistent effort and with all the jumping and my lack of racing at two kilometres to go I lost contact with the front and then just had to do the best effort I could. I know I shouldn’t expect much at this point but it’s still a bit disappointing to be so close to being able to sprint for a result with the front guys. Anyway, I think I can take a lot of positives already and some confidence that I can still be in the fight a bit.”