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9th Telekom Malaysia Le Tour de Langkawi - 2.2
Malaysia, February 6-15, 2004
Rider Diaries
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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.
Here to race, but a little underdone
Penang, February 5, 2003
I took a day and a half to get here from Canada, because I had to go through LA. Every time you go through LA, the security's so tight.
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The preparation this year was different to last year. I did more climbing back home and less endurance rides, but that was due to the weather more than anything. It's been a pretty cool wet winter overall in Victoria, so I just focused on the climbing. I would've liked to have a little more training under my belt, but when you're 29 and you've been racing since you're 14 years old, I think you can handle it. We'll see. I enjoy the race for the simple fact they way they treat the athletes and the amount of effort they put into this race; it's such a good race.
I haven't raced since September last year - not since the MTB World's. It's always a bit of mystery until you actually race, but having that climb on day two will be a good indicator. I predict that it'll be select a group of 6 to 10 at the finish. It's pretty mellow the first part of the climb, but the second step is steeper towards the finish. If someone can win solo, I don't think they could get a lot of time.
I talked to my Mom before I came - I talk to her a lot before I go off to big races. My Mom's always really supportive - she always tells me I can win, even when I don't think I can! But that's what moms are for, right?!
First day here, I went out training with the Health Net boys. This year it feels a little hotter than last year, more humid. Not knowing the roads, I ended up doing a little more than four hours - didn't see any monkeys though! Second day, I rode with Health Net again and did another three hour ride. Today, I just took it easy and rode about an hour and a half. And that was perfect.
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About my road riding this year. I'm taking it pretty seriously. It's just my mentality when racing bikes - I have a hard time just racing for training - especially when you've gone halfway 'round the world. I mean, that's the big difference between mountain biking and road riding - those guys can do races for training only, but with mountain biking, you've got to be good whenever the race is on.
With the NORBAs now up to seven [races], the World Cup and the Olympics, it's going to be a pretty good year for me. So I'll be getting an apartment in Spain to adjust for all those time changes in between all those races, but it should be good.
It's 8:15pm. I haven't made it past 8:30pm since I got here three days ago because of the time difference, and I've been waking up at 5:00am. So it's bedtime for me now.
Talk to you tomorrow,
rg
