After just one day in the saddle, the Tour de Langkawi finds itself in an intriguing position. On a stifling Saturday afternoon in the mainland's far north, a select breakaway group charged to the finish in Kepala Batas way ahead of schedule and more than 20 minutes clear of the rest of the field. And in one fell swoop, it's likely to have changed the race for overall honors into a 19 horse race.

Led by Bouygues Telecom's Mathieu Sprick, who launched a solo move four kilometers from home to hold off Mitchell Docker (Drapac Porsche) and Diego Nosotti (NGC Medical) by a matter of meters, the in-form Frenchman - who later admitted surprising himself at just how good he was - holds a tenuous five second advantage over his closest rival and up to 13 seconds more on the rest of the break.

While not nearly enough to say he'll follow in the footsteps of last year's overall winner, countryman Anthony Charteau, in a race that's likely to come down to the one who picks up the most time bonuses over the following eight stages, it's a handy little lead nonetheless.

"I noticed in the intermediate sprints that some of the guys were really good sprinters, so I preferred to try my chances before the finish," said 26-year-old Sprick. "I'm a little bit surprised about my condition; the first ProTour races have started already but for me, that will happen a bit later. For now, I'm just happy to profit from the condition I have at the Tour de Langkawi. It's going to be hard to defend the jersey because there's many stages left... Five seconds isn't much - we'll talk about that tonight."

Out of the break, who left their indelible mark no more than 25km into the 182.5km leg down the northwestern seaboard of Malaysia, three teams - Team Type 1, Serramenti PVC and Skil-Shimano - enjoyed the enviable position of having two team-mates represented; all things being equal, the 13 others are left with no choice when it comes down to choosing their man for the general classification. This doesn't seem to bother Docker too much, whose form honed at the recent Tour of Qatar and natural speed make him an ideal candidate for taking on the bigger names in the points classification.

Sprick isn't claiming overall victory, but he's closer than most.

"I did feel strong in the sprint in the end, which I was really pleased about. I guess I'll have a look at the points and first of all focus on this jersey and see what happens tomorrow - I'm sure it will be a very aggressive race again, so anything can happen there," Docker said. "I haven't really thought about [the] overall - everybody on the team was on the attack [today]. Last week we were racing in Qatar and it was very hard, but I knew it would be great preparation for the race here."

Boasting six from Australasia that includes four Aussies and a pair of Kiwis, it's worth noting the benefits of a summer Down Under. Team Type 1's Matthew Wilson, who won last year's Herald Sun Tour by riding smart and picking up as many time bonuses as he could, already bagged two intermediate sprints on the opening stage that moved him into third overall, seven seconds adrift of Sprick.

Don't count out best Asian rider Shinichi Fukushima (Meitan Hompo-GDR) either. He’s tactically astute and not here for a holiday.

"I felt very good in the beginning, but with the weather so hot, it wasn't easy. My objective was to get a stage [win] but with my position on GC, that won't be so easy now," he said, chuckling to himself.