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Perez and Gonzalez team up in Langkawi

Ipoh-Tanah Rata (151.6km)

Published: Feb. 7, 2004
Stage 2 map
Stage 2 map

Teammates Marlon Perez and Freddy Gonzalez of the Columbia-Selle Italia squad set the stage for the general classification on the first of two mountain stages at the 10-day Tour de Langkawi Saturday, finishing first and second on the day’s nearly 60km gradual climb into the Cameron Highlands.

It was a good day for the South American squad, which now holds both the yellow leader’s jersey (Perez) and the blue sprinter’s jersey (Gonzalez).

A 151km stage from Peninsular Malaysia’s third-largest city of Ipoh to the village of Tanah Rata, deep in the densely vegetated mountains of the Cameron Highlands, the day was animated by a series of attacks and counterattacks early on by the European Panaria and Relax-Bodysol squads, both hoping to avoid setting the pace by placing riders in a break.

A breakaway of eight riders eventually slipped away 40km into the stage after a brutal 10km of various intense attempts to escape. In the break were Perez, Jurgen Van De Walle (Chocolade Jacques), Jeremy Maartens (South Africa), Sean Sullivan (Barloworld), Matnur Matnur (Wismilak), Devis Miorin (De-Nardi), Hector Guerra Garcia (Relax) and Health Net’s sprint ace Gord Fraser.

Lacking representation were the teams of overall hopefuls Fortunato Baliani (Panaria), Wladimir Belli (Lampre) or Roland Green (Canadian National).

“We missed that break, so we had to spend a bit of the day at the front,” said Canada’s Eric Wohlberg. “What are you going to do? You have to chase it down.”

The break escaped right before the course’s only feed zone, and within just 20km the gap quickly opened to almost seven minutes.

“I was just doing my job, trying to cover moves,” said Fraser, who took the first two of three intermediate sprints, “and it just so happened that my move went. It wasn’t like I was super motivated to do that, but it just worked out so I took the points when I could.”

Behind the breakaway, Lampre, Panaria and Canadian National led a heightened chase that was marred by a crash in the flats at kilometer 79. Brought down in the pileup was Health Net’s GC hopeful, Scott Moninger, who feared he’d broken a rib but continued to finish the stage.

“Somebody just threw it away in front of me,” Moninger said. “I really don’t know how it happened, but it couldn’t be avoided. We were going pretty fast, it was when Lampre and the Canadians were chasing, so it was 55kph and some guy just fell down in front of me. I had nowhere to go, and when I hit the deck someone came right down on my ribs.”

As the peloton, led by Lampre, approached the day’s long, winding big-ring climb through rainforest jungles, the gap slowly came down; at the 100km mark, it had been reduced to 3:30.

The first of the breakaways to crack on the ascent was Matnur. Sensing the break wouldn’t stick, Guerra Garcia had a go at finishing the climb alone, opening up a maximum lead of nearly 1:30, with the peloton another 1:40 back.

Behind Guerra Garcia, the chase group quickly began to disintegrate. With 25km still remaining, the first to peel from the group was Maartens; next to go were Miorin and Fraser. Soon the chase consisted of just three riders – Perez, Van De Walle and Sullivan, at 46 seconds behind – with Fraser and Miorin another 34 seconds back and the peloton a further 1:40 down.

Suddenly, with a quick surge, Perez left the group and bridged to Guerra Garcia, riding with the Spaniard for a few kilometers before making the winning move. Behind, another chase group had formed, consisting of Gonzalez and teammate Ruber Marin, teammates David George and Ryan Cox (Barloworld), Dave Bruylandts (Chocolade Jacques) and Alessandro Cortinovis.

But the slightly built Gonzalez, King of the Mountains at the 2003 Giro d’Italia, would have nothing of the rest of the bunch and rode them off his wheel, charging to a second-place finish behind Perez, 47 seconds arrears. Cox took third on the day, 1:12 down, while Marin and George took fourth and fifth with the same time. In all, there were three Columbians in the top-six positions.

“The break was working and I was feeling strong,” said Perez, a first-year Selle Italia rider resplendent in the yellow leader’s jersey. “That’s how stage racing goes – you never know who’s feeling well.”

The top North American finisher was Canadian National’s two-time cross-country world champion Roland Green, who finished 18th, 2:16 back. Although it was not an extraordinary performance from the man who animated the Genting Highlands stage at the Tour de Langkawi last year, Green was content with his performance.

“I felt good, not great,” Green said. “It was pretty much what I’d expected. I haven’t raced a road bike since [the Tour de] Georgia [last April.]”

For Health Net, the only other North American team in the race, its hopes in the overall classification now rest in John Lieswyn, who finished 25th. It was a strong ride by the 35-year-old from Iowa, but after the stage Lieswyn was angry, in discussions with team director Jeff Corbett about a rider protest regarding some less-than-scrupulous team tactics on the climb.

“I worked for three kilometers to catch the group in front of me,” Lieswyn said, “and this guy [Michele Scotto D’Abusco] from Lampre comes by holding onto a water bottle with his team car going maybe 50 kilometers an hour, goes right through our group, lets go of the bottle, catches the group that I had been chasing and then just throttles it and drags that group away. It’s only 20 seconds or so, but man, 20 seconds and I could be in the top-10 in this race. It’s not like it’s a podium spot, but it’s cheating and there were a lot of guys that saw it. It’s a typical Euro’ maneuver. It’s happened to me at Philly, they sling off of you and the commissaires turn the eye.”

As for Moninger, he would have to wait to see how his ribs would recover. “I don’t really know what it feels like to have a broken rib,” Moninger said, “but I can’t really take a deep breath right now. I was pretty much working on one lung there for the last 20 kilometers.”

Meanwhile, with eight days of racing remaining, 14 riders are within 1:55 of each other.

Race note:
A scare went through the race caravan when the secondary follow car of the Relax team overturned on the uphill section of the course, 25km from the summit, smashing the windshield and the spare bikes atop the car.

On a tight left-hand bend, the driver apparently ran his vehicle into the steep hillside, flipping the car onto its roof. It was a ghastly sight, but fortunately, the car had no other passengers and no one was hurt.

“He was with us for half an hour before,” said race controller Alan Rushton, “and we were controlling him as he was shouting out the window to a rider, but he went up on the hillside and flipped. We got him out the window, so he’s okay. He’s a bit shaken, but not stirred.”

Stage 3 preview
Stage 3 features another hilly route, this time around a rapid climb up to Fraser's Gap. With 20km of climbing and rapid descent, followed by 10km of flat racing into the town of Raub in Pahang, the stage could once again split the peloton, as the climbers fight to gain as much time as possible.