As the sole WorldTour team at the 2017 Tour de Langkawi and two-time defending champions, the pressure was on Dimension Data ahead of the queen stage to Cameron Highlands.
Pre-stage, leader Ryan Gibbons fully expected to lose the jersey with his sprint characteristics hardly suited to the 25-km climb. Dimension Data started the day with the dual ambitions of winning the stage via Mekseb Debesay or Ben O'Connor while trying to limit Gibbons' losses and keep him in contention for the overall.
Dimension Data rose to the occasion – stage victory went to Debesay and third place to Gibbons, who increased his overall lead – leaving the team's two young African neo-pros and directeur sportif Oli Cookson in a state of disbelief with how well the day played out.
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"We knew that Mekseb and Ben were strong, but we also had a responsibility with Ryan," Cookson told Cyclingnews. "We had it in the back of our minds that Ryan could climb like this. His coach informed us and we know his weight and his power so it just depended on the way the race went and it played into our hands."
Third place for Gibbons has the team within striking distance of a historic third straight victory in Malaysia but Cookson isn't counting his chickens before they hatch as he explained.
"There some very good teams here, there's a lot of pressure on us, there already was, but even more now after winning the queen stage and keeping the yellow," he added. "Ryan is a young rider, and we are already ahead of expectation, and we need to bide our time. We respect our rivals and also it's an eight-day race in hot humid conditions so you need to keep strong and not get sick so we take it day by day."
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