THIS WEEK IN PRO CYCLING
Stage 10: Langkawi: Brown gets No. 5
With the king of Malaysia looking on from the VIP seats at the finish line, Aussie Graeme Brown affirmed his status as ruler of the Tour de Langkawi sprints, easily taking the 10th and final stage of the 2005 Tour de Langkawi on Sunday in downtown Kuala Lumpur. The win was Brown’s fifth at the 10th anniversary of the Malaysian national tour, upping his all-time wins record to nine.
Meanwhile, South African Ryan Cox coasted home safely in the bunch to officially conclude the biggest win of his career, the TdL overall title. Cox (Barloworld) edged Venezuelan Jose Rujano (Colombia Selle Italia) by 18 seconds in the 1284.6km race. Fellow South African Tiaan Kannemeyer (Barloworld) was third, at 1:34.
“I started focusing on this race in the middle of November,” recalled Cox, who is hopeful that his GC win plus the overall Langkawi team title will help Barloworld get a wild card spot at May’s Giro d’Italia. “I stopped last season quite early. I didn’t do the world championships. I didn’t want the season to go to long, so I could focus on this because second place overall here last year wasn’t good enough.”
Emulating Europe’s three grand tours, the race in Malaysia concluded with a 67km criterium that wound its way through the busy streets of the country’s largest city. The 6.5km circuit led the peloton past KL’s most prominent landmarks, including the Petronas Towers and the Menara Kuala Lumpur, a near replica of the Space Needle in Seattle. Large crowds lined most of the course, and abundant decorations for the upcoming Chinese New Year gave the day a festive atmosphere.
As he’s done on so many occasions before here, Japan’s Koji Fukushima was the first rider to peel off the front, making his move during the first of 10 laps. The break wouldn’t last and it wasn’t until lap 4 that anything of consequence developed. There it was a group of four - Fukushima (Bridgestone), his teammate and brother Shinichi, Discovery’s Fumiyuki Beppu and Panaria’s Julio Perez - that got away.
The foursome would stay away through the middle of lap 6, building an advantage that crested at 25 seconds. But with Barloworld and Panaria making the pace at the front, the race was all back together as the field headed out for the final four laps. A move of four on lap seven and a solo attack by Domina Vacanze’s Sergio Ghisalberti during the final lap were also fruitless, and Panaria came to the front once again for the gallop to the finish.
“Once again it was a great ride by the team,” said Brown (Ceramica-Panaria). “Our plan was to ride on the front and control the race and try to nullify all the attacks and that’s exactly what happened.”
At the finish it was Brown dueling teammate Ruben Bongiorno, but unlike the last two years when the Argentine won the TdL finale, Brown was first across the line. Navigators Russian sprint ace Oleg Grishkine grabbed the third spot.
In the points-jersey battle, Brown was the runaway winner, while Grishkine slipped past Bongiorno on the final day to take the second spot. Cox won the KoM jersey by virtue of his Genting Highlands stage win, while Fukushima barely held on to take the top Asian jersey. Coming into Sunday the popular Japanese rider was just 4 seconds ahead of Indonesian Tonton Susanto, but Susanto cut that margin to a single second earning bonus time on the first two sprints.
Both Brown and Cox will now both focus their attention on the Giro, each hoping that their success here will carry over to the Italian grand tour.
“I’ve very much surprised myself here as well as my director,” said Brown of his record setting run. “I really don’t think I’m even close to top form yet. I’m still not at 100 percent. The aim will be to be 100 percent there and go head to head with [Italian sprint master Alessandro] Petacchi.”
Cox will first need to hope that his team can get a Giro start spot, and then he figures he could be a player in the mountains.
“I think I’d have a chance for a stage win or maybe the KoM competition,” he said. “Right now I’ll go back for the South African nationals, then take it a bit easy and build it up for April and May.”
RACE NOTES
Royal gaffe
The day’s most dramatic moment came during the podium celebration when Brown was called up on stage to accept the blue points jersey from the Malaysian king. Brown wasn’t aware of the royal presence, pulling off his hat and plopping it on the king’s head before slipping on the jersey.
Afterward several Malaysian reporters joked that if it had been any of them, they would have been hauled away by the police and locked up for a year.
“I had no idea it was the king,” said Brown.
The king didn’t seem to upset though, and was promptly whisked away from the finish line in a green Mercedes immediately after the presentation concluded.
North American update
It was a quiet day for the nine-rider North American contingent, with only Canadian Michael Barry doing any time off the front. The Discovery rider took third in the first sprint and second in No. 2, earning three seconds in time bonuses to move from 15th to 14th in the overall standings.
Here’s the final GC placing of all the North Americans.
5. Tom Danielson (USA), Discovery, at 3:01
14. Michael Barry (Can), Discovery, at 5:57
16. Saul Raisin (USA), Credit Agricole, at 6:14
22. Mark Walters (Can), Navigators, at 6:53
26. Patrick McCarty (USA), Discovery, at 7:49
31. Julio Perez (Mex), Ceramica-Panaria, at 9:47
33. Jeff Louder (USA), Navigators, at 9:51
37. Michael Creed (USA), Discovery, at 10:49
42. Tony Cruz (USA), Discovery, at 13:25
In the final team standings Navigators ended up fourth at 6:34, with Discovery fifth at 6:49. South Africa’s Barloworld won the team title with a cumulative time of 91:03:23.
FINAL JERSEY HOLDERS
Yellow (Overall): Ryan Cox (SA), Barloworld
Green (Points): Graeme Brown (Aus), Ceramica-Panaria
Polka Dot (KoM): Ryan Cox (SA), Barloworld
Blue (Top Asian): Koji Fukushima (Jpn), Bridgestone
