Five years after Sean Kelly hung up his wheels, Irish cycling returned to the professional peloton on Tuesday when Waterford cyclist Ciaran Power made his debut with the Linda McCartney squad in the Tour of Langkawi in Malaysia.

The 23-year-old made an encouraging start to his season in the criterium-style prologue of the 13-day Tour. Although the street-circuit race did not count towards the overall classification Power sprinted home in ninth place after an hour of high speed racing. The race proper began with a 9.2 kilometre time trial yesterday and the Irishman placed 52nd of 149 riders in both the stage and the overall classification, conceding one minute and nine seconds to American Floyd Landis. The 1,600 kilometre Tour continues until February 6th when it concludes with a criterium on the streets of Kuala Lumpur.