9th Telekom Malaysia Le Tour de Langkawi - 2.2

Malaysia, February 6-15, 2004

Rider Diaries

Photo: © Mark Sharon

Mountain Man: The Roland Green diary

Nationality: Canadian
Team: Canada

Dual world MTB champion Roland Green proved his worth on the roads of Malaysia in 2003, winning the King of the Mountains prize and finishing fourth overall. This year, Roland wants to win. Stay tuned to see whether the mountain man can do it.

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Genting and goin' home

Kuala Lumpur, Stage 10 start, February 15, 2004

The climb to Genting started a lot more mellow than I thought. There was still a lot of people until about seven or eight k to go, but after that, there was a pretty big selection. So I really didn't know how I was feeling until the gas started going, but once that Chocolade Jacques rider, [Jurgen] Van De Walle, went to front, he did a great job for Dave [Bruylandts]; he just went to the front and set a tempo as high as he could to ward off the accelerations and then he blew - but he set Dave up really well, who got third on the stage.

When he [Van De Walle] started driving it, that's when a lot of people started going off and I was scared to go with that move because I didn't want to blow; I blew there last year and I was like, "Nope, not again". The funny thing was that there was a surge with six [kilometres] to go and I could have went with it, but was afraid to blow up - but then after, a lot of guys that went with the surge started coming back and the last two k, I felt really good. But I was really happy with the way things went: a top 10 finish on the day and I also moved myself into the top 10 on GC.

I played it a little safe, but that was good - and looking at the time gap to eighth on GC [Roland was lying ninth, 3'45 behind Freddy Gonzalez; Marlon Perez was eighth 2'30 behind Gonzalez - Ed], it didn't really matter. Eric [Wohlberg] also had a good climb and so did Peter [Wedge], so we're hanging fifth on team GC and we're happy with that. And we got some UCI points out of the deal, was the whole point of coming out here.

Today is a perfect course for Charles [Dionne], but it's going to be interesting to see what the South Africans try. I've been very impressed with the South Africans - both Barloworld and the national team - they sure earned themselves a lot of UCI points here.

They're [Barloworld] are lying third by just one second; I don't expect that guy [Tiaan Kannemeyer] can sprint, but they're got to try something, right? They've just got to get one top three in one of the sprints, and if a draw, it would go down to placements on stages. That's a fair bit of prizemoney and a fair bit of UCI points - but for Chocolade Jacques to let that guy go in a move, I don't see that happening.

But stranger things have happened, y'know. This is a big pack, tight streets, lots of corners... gaps can open up. Last year, I think it was fortunate for Saturn that this race was neutralised because it was mayhem. For a course like this, 60-70 guys is a nice number, but with 123 riders, there can be trouble. But I don't think you're going to see a break go with any significant GC riders in it, but definitely a break with riders who are fast enough on the flats and can win stages, and I think there would be some teams out there that would be happy to see a break go with those time bonuses up for grabs.

So what will I do when I get home? Probably put on a few pounds to begin with :) As soon as you get into that cold weather, you can't help that extra bit of fat sticking on you...

But this has been good for me. The heat preparation for Athens has been perfect, and it's going to be similar conditions weather-wise, so the more experience you have with that, the better. Let's hope I can stay healthy till then.

Thanks for reading and see you 'round,
rg

Editor's note: Roland finished the stage in 59th place, 0'21 behind winner Ruben Bongiorno. He finished 10th on the overall classification, 4'06 behind overall winner Freddy Gonzalez.

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