Allan Davis (Orica-GreenEdge) is starting his thirteenth season as a professional, since joining the Mapei-Quick Step team back in 2001 at the age of twenty. The Queenslander has never appeared at le Tour de Langkawi before, but is evidently relishing in the hot conditions of the Malaysian race.
“It’s my first time,” he confirmed. “So far so good; I’m enjoying the weather. We’ll see how the race goes.
The hot temperatures of Malaysia are certainly closer to those experienced in Davis’ native Australia, and suit him far better than those that will likely be experienced by many of his teammates in Belgium in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne this weekend.
He confirmed that this is a factor in his wanting to ride the race. “For me its part of a preparation stage, so it’s a lot more enjoyable than icy rain slash snow in Europe.”
Much of the talk at Langkawi this year is about the number of high quality sprinters that have travelled to the race, which is expected to make the tradition of one man dominating the many flat stages a thing of the past.
“I think it’ll be a bit different this year, from what I’ve read in the past,” Davis said. “Looking at some of the guys here it should be a pretty hot sprinting field, so we should see some… we might see one sprinter dominate, but it won’t be five or six, it’ll be more like two or three.”
Despite being one of Orica-GreenEdge’s fastest sprinters, Davis has begun the 2013 season in the service of teammate Aidis Kruopis. This saw the Lithuanian battling for podium positions in the Tour of Qatar earlier in the month, and is set to continue in Langkawi.
“I’ll be doing lead outs this week,” Davis confirmed. “It’ll be Aidis [sprinting]. He’s in good condition, so it’s his time to get a result. It’s good for me to tune up my lead out stuff as well, Qatar was the same frame of mind; I was more riding the front in the last 30km, but in this I’ll probably be doing the last man stuff. Which will be good as well, to get back into it. Been doing it for the last twelve years or so, but its good to top up the skills.
The dominant lead out train on Langkawi’s opening stage was that of Blanco Pro Cycling, with Davis’ compatriot Graeme Brown escorting Dutchman Theo Bos perfectly into the final few hundred metres. With other ambitions in the race, Orica-GreenEdge cannot hope to compete on a manpower lever with the Dutch team, but Davis is confident of being able to make a difference.
“I think they’re going to be the team to watch,” he confirmed. We don’t have a full sprint train. We’ve got a couple of guys who can do well in the overall; Durbo [Australian champion Luke Durbridge], Pete Weening, [Wesley] Sulzberger, Travis Meyer.”
With four out of the six Orica-GreenEdge riders having overall possibilities, Davis could have his work cut out in looking after Kruopis in the opening stages; one thing is certain though, to get the Lithuanian into position will involve battling with old adversary Brown in the mêlée of the final kilometre.
“I’m sure we’ll be locked shoulders, like old,” he smiled. “Like for the last fifteen years!”