Holding a precariously small lead in the overall standings at the Tour de Langkawi for the last six days, Matthieu Sprick finally lost his hold on the maillot jaune Friday in Kuantan. Trying his hardest without result, Drapac-Porsche's young sprinter Mitchell Docker knew time was fast running out to lead the Tour de Langkawi, however briefly that now might be, and that the seventh leg could well be his last chance before Saturday’s queen stage to Fraser Hill.

At the first intermediate sprint in Merchang, Docker's third place put him on equal time with Bouygues Telecom’s Sprick. With three more sprints to go there was a strong likelihood the 21-year-old Aussie could do it, and he needed only another 20 kilometers before a second place made him virtual race leader by two seconds.

The third intermediate sprint did nothing before the final crash-marred dash to the line that took out in-form speedsters Alberto Loddo and Danilo Loddo, the former coming off worst in a 65kph pile-up caused by reckless Argentine Mauro Richeze of CSF Group-Navigare, fined a mere 60 Swiss Francs by the UCI commissaires but in truth should be banned for at least three months. By chance, AG2R La Mondiale's Belarusian Alexandre Usov, up front but well behind these guys, avoided the chaos to claim a victory that even he said he didn't want.

"The crash was very influential on the final result," conceded Usov. "It's good for me, but I'm sad for the riders that went down. I don't know exactly what happened; I only saw what happened 20 meters before the line, but that's how I came first without 'wanting' it.

Asked if he felt like he deserved the win, Usov said that circumstance did not diminish the victory.

"You can't say I don't deserve to win because I was first over the line and to be contesting the win, you have to be in a good position anyway. But if there wasn't a crash, I wouldn't have been first," he said.

There was no moral doubt surrounding Docker's achievement, whose Drapac-Porsche outfit is certainly worthy of their race start at the Tour de Langkawi. "Yeah, it's great for the team. The team boss rang up a few days ago and said it'd be great to have the jersey and I said, 'it's not so easy' - so now I think he'd be rapt. It was really hard just to get one or two seconds today, but it was really worth it in the end.

"It would have been good to have it earlier but it's still good to have it now. I think we can hold it together tomorrow [Saturday] and it'll be on for everyone. It's going to be a tough day and I think a lot of the GC guys that mightn't have been featuring in any of the sprints are going to be there. I'd like to keep it over the mountain... Anything can happen, and I'd love to be here again tomorrow," Docker said wistfully.

Despite doing his best to save Sprick's maillot jaune, Aurlien Clerc nevertheless secured his lead in the points classification that now appears he'll have for keeps by the time the race finishes in Kuala Lumpur.

"It's okay; it's a good job for the week. We were already happy to have the yellow jersey for six days and he [Docker] is very fast in the sprint and Matthieu is not so fast. Tomorrow is a hard stage and Matthieu has good legs, so I hope he can get the yellow jersey back," said Clerc.

So long as Sprick's got the legs, it's not being overly optimistic. 15 seconds separate the top 19 riders, and on their day, seven riders could realistically take the race lead by the time the eighth stage finishes in Bukit Fraser. Rated hors catégorie by the organizers, it's not the gradient that will hurt them, nor the altitude at 844 meters above sea level, but simply the length of the climb that comprises almost a quarter of the 127km stage.