Imagine that if besides the backbiting that so often characterized the Kobe-Shaq era, the pair of NBA stars had literally fought for the ball during their stint with the L.A. Lakers. Sounds preposterous, but don’t think it never happens in the world of sports — including cycling.

Take for example, the pair of speedsters from Italian pro squad Ceramica Panaria. Though Graeme Brown and Ruben Bongiorno sport the same bright orange jerseys, when it comes time to sprint one might as well be riding for the Hatfields, the other the McCoys.

Two years ago the pair went head-to-head at the final stage of the Tour de Langkawi, with Bongiorno coming out ahead. And on Friday the rivalry was renewed, this time with the Aussie Brown edging out his Argentinean teammate in the opening event of the 10-day Malaysian stage race.

“I had his wheel and I was yelling at him to go but he wasn’t real keen to go,” explained Brown of the gamesmanship that went down in the last 500 meters of the mostly flat 106.9km stage on touristy Langkawi Island off Malaysia’s northwest coast. “He just started his sprint normally, then went across to the right and I was sort of stuck in the wind. That was no good, so I just went straight up the gaps and got clear of the bunch. Bongiorno had a bit of a gap, so I started in on his wheel. I supposed it looked like the perfect leadout, but as it turned out we were just both racing each other.”

Brown’s assessment of the 2:19:32 stage was much kinder than two years ago when he called his precocious teammate “an idiot,” but he did admit that two teammates fighting for one spot is not ideal. “Definitely not ideal,” he said.

Behind the Panaria boys, Navigators Russian speedster Oleg Grishkini completed the podium in third, on a day that actually included a little more action than anyone had anticipated.

After some early solo suicide breaks came and went, a move of about 20 formed and grew its advantage to 1:30. The move would eventually disintegrate, but not before Panaria and Discovery, who were both caught out, had to burn some energy at the front to bring things back together.

“A break went quite early, at about 20-30km in with maybe eight guys,” explained Barloworld’s Ryan Cox. “We had one there. Then another group went across and there was three of us in that group, so we had four of about 15 to 20. But no one really wanted to drive through and commit. At about 25km to go it started coming down.”

Joseba Beloki came to Malaysia in hopes of regaining his once-great form

From there the reigning South African national champion tried to give a go all alone, but with the peloton coming hard it wasn’t to be.

“I got in another move with about five guys with 15km to go,” continued Cox. “Then there was just two of us [Great Britain’s Kristian House was the other rider] and at about 5km I broke from him.”

Cox would soon be swept over by the hard chasing bunch, but the drama wasn’t over yet.

With less than 3km to go a crash brought down numerous riders, including Discovery Channel’s Tony Cruz and Fumi Beppu. But thanks to a new UCI rule, which credits the same time to all riders if there is a crash within 3km instead of the old 1km, no one lost time.

Help needed

(After the race the initial set of results did not reflect this, and included multiple time gaps, but there were assurances from officials that the results would be changed.)

“They put the rule in so nobody would take any risks,” lamented Discovery’s Michael Creed. “But obviously it didn’t work today.”

What did work was the continued battle between teammates Brown and Bongiorno. “It’s not exactly conventional but the director just lets us go at it,” said Brown, who won a pair of Olympic gold medals on the track in Athens last summer, and has now won five TdL stages in the last four years racing in Malaysia. “We both obviously want to win and get a bit fired up.”

RACE NOTES
The Terminal
Stories of travel troubles are commonplace at faraway races like the Tour de Langkawi. But the tale of Navigators climbing ace Cesar Grajales goes beyond epic journey. It took the Colombian a full week to get from him home in South America to Langkawi Island where the race kicked off on Friday.

The trip started with a puddle-jumper flight into Bogotá, then a flight up to Miami, where he was supposed to connect to New York City, before heading to Malaysia. But because of the snowstorm that was pounding the northeast at the time, Grajales had to be rerouted to Los Angeles, where he spent two nights before finally boarding the Malaysia Airlines flight that would take him to Kuala Lumpur and on to Langkawi.

But Grajales’ trip hit another snag when he arrived in KL and was held up at customs because he did not have a visa.

“They had told me I wouldn’t need one,” explained Grajales, who had to spend the night in the KL airport before the problem was finally resolved and he was put on a flight that arrived in Langkawi a day before the race began. “Some important person called and like magic I had a visa.”

While still a little beleaguered by the whole ordeal, the Navigators top GC threat here in Malaysia said he’d be fine.

Casualty No. 1
The Navigators got another tough break before the opening day was done when Australian Hilton Clarke was forced to pull out of the race due to stomach problems.

“He was throwing up all night,” said team director Ed Beamon. “As soon as we hit the first climb today, that was it. He’d been sitting at the back the whole time.”

Stage 2 map

JERSEY UPDATE
Yellow (Overall): Graeme Brown (Aus), Ceramica Panaria
Green (Points): Graeme Brown (Aus), Ceramica Panaria
Polka Dot (KoM): Kristian House (GB), Great Britain National
Blue (Top Asian): Mahdi Sohrabi, Iran National

NEXT UP: Stage 2 — Kangar to Kepala Batas, 171.6 km
After the entire race caravan loads up on ferry boats for the trip back to the Malaysian mainland, the race resumes with a flat run from Kangar to Kepala Batas. The finish venue, which is home to the Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi will be making its debut appearance. The riders will be face Category 4 climb at Bukit Selambau near the end of the stage. This route will also take the peloton through several towns in the north like Alor Setar, Gurun, Jeniang, Kuala Ketil and Tasek Gelugor before rolling to a likely mass sprint in Kepala Batas.