World Wide Cycling
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Schedule
East Java Tour 2005 1
Monday 27th June Surabaya - Lamongan 177 km 2
Tuesday 28th June Lamongan - Madion 165 km 3
Wednesday 29th June Madion - Batu 160.2 km 4
Thursday 30th June Pasuruan - Jember 173km 5
Friday 1st july Jember - Sidoarjo 193.5 km Total
868,7 km Riders
on the Marco Polo Cycling Team :
Nathan
Dahlberg, New Zealand Robin
Reid, New Zealand Eddy
Hollands, Australia Rhys
Pollock, Australia Jamsran
Ulzii-Orshikh, Mongolia Report
by Nathan Dahlberg Photos
by Rhys Pollock and Puspita Surabaya
, 3 to 6 million people - no one knows, second biggest city on the island of
Java the most densely populated island on Earth. That is our base camp for the
Tour of East Java another new 5 day stage race on the Indonesian and UCI
calendar. Eddy Hollands and I (Nathan Dahlberg) had already previous experience
in Indonesia but for Rhys Pollock, Robin Reid and Jamsran Ulzii-Orshikh (Oggi)
this was an all new country and very different race conditions than most
countries with steep large mountains to be climbed in stifling heat and
humidity. With 2 Mountain finishes in 5 days of racing and 2 of the other days
being short criteriums this was not an opportunist or strong mans tour but
rather one for the super climber. From the start the Giant Asia team were the
guys to beat with Iranian super climber Mizibani and his cohort Ahat obviously
the strongest mountain men of the race.
Marco
Polo Cycling Team riders, Rhys Pollock, Jamsran Ulzii-Orshikh and Nathan
Dahlberg with Indonesian staff.
Stage
1 With
that in mind we launched aggressively into the first stage, flat over 197 kms
with the idea of taking time where we could. After numerous attacks Oggi broke
away with a handful of riders and spent 160kms pulling furiously. But with
Giants Irish rider Paul Griffin playing the Giant watch dog and his break away
companions tiring the maximum lead of 4minutes was reduced to just 20 seconds by
the chasing Giant riders. Oggi
still finished second behind Griffin in the sprint but the effort was to tell in
the second day which climbed a 1300 meter pass before a twisting descent into
Batu during the final 15kms.
Jamsran
Ulzii-Orshikh at the podium with his second place behind Paul Griffin.
Stage
2 Again
at the start there were numerous attacks and this time it was Robin Reid playing
watchdog over Mizibani and Polygons Kazak rider Yevgeniy Yakolev as they rode
away to a 7 minute lead. The
real hot humid conditions made the race feel like riding through glue and
after160kms as the climb was beginning the lead collapsed except for Mizbani who
had ridden off to a 2 minute lead alone!! The climb suited our team though,
30kms long in 2 sections and a grade of only about 7 per cent. Eddy and Rob, who
had rejoined us after taking a quick 'comfort' stop set great tempo up the first
10kms and than in the rolling middle portions Rhys and I took over and suddenly
Mizbani reappeared just in front of us completely blown. As the second harder
part of the climb started Rob set a wicked tempo again and I disappeared out the
back with Mizbani. Eventually on the upper portions of the climb Ahat launched
away solo and despite crashing on the downhill managed to hold of Chris Bradford
of Wismilak and Rhys by a handful of seconds , with Robin and Eddy close behind.
Oggi
came in with me after suffering bad cramp some 7 minutes behind , but Mizbani
was there as well so one climber less.
Rhys
Pollock at the podium with a third place next to stage winner Ahat Kazemi and
Chris Bradford.
Stage
3 criterium The
following day was a 56km crit on an L shaped circuit and really the final chance
for us to take time from the climbers before the Mt Bromo mountain finish the
following day. Rob and I started attacking from the word go and after several
laps a break formed up with the majority of the better teams involved including
both Poloygon Kazaks, Casino Philippine riders, Wismilaks Samai , Malaysian
National team riders and both Robin and myself.
Robin
Reid suffering in the Indonesian heat in the Tour of East Java 2005.
With
both Robin and Kazak Yakolev riding for the jersey. The lead got up to almost 50
seconds however Giant finally managed to rally a chase behind which reduced the
lead to just 15 seconds by the finish which saw Samai easily waste us all in the
sprint and Robin getting 4th which meant missing the time bonus and Yellow
jersey which now went to Yakolev. However the first 10 places overall were all
in seconds still awaiting the following days " big "climb.
Stage
4 Mount Bromo - monster Volcano Mt
Bromo , this is hard to describe as I've never seen a climb like it. Rising 2300
meters out of the sea someone had hung a road straight up this monster Volcano.
When I looked at Yakolev's back wheel and saw a 32 sprocket on there (he had
previously trained up Mt Bromo) I was more than happy that I was no longer in GC
contention. If one took the hardest Tour de France Mtn and added another 700
meters of climbing at the end in just 5kms it would be something like Mt Bromo.
Mount
Bromo, brutal monster Vulcano climb. If one took the hardest Tour de France Mtn
and added another 700 meters of climbing at the end in just 5kms it would be
something like Mt Bromo.
Again
we attacked from the start and again Oggi got away , this time getting a 12
minute lead which seemed pretty substantial with just 30kms to go of a 136kms
stage. Behind Constant attacks saw another group with Eddy and Robin go but also
Yakolev and Ahat!! Behind
the peloton crawled along, everyone to scared to put an effort in as the lower
slopes of the climb were beginning. For most riders it was now 2 hours of all
out suffering on the 23/25 and 27 sprockets if they had them. However Mizbani
showed his true talent riding out of the peloton and past everyone in the race
to win by minutes alone from Ahat and a surprising Paul Griffin who finished
third. Robin also did a great ride to finish 5th and Eddy was 10th to put them
into 3rd and 7th overall. With gaps of minutes between just about everyone the
GC seemed over. There was one reward for the effort of getting up to the top as
the torrid crowded atmosphere of the plains below had been replaced by clean
mountain air and a surreal volcanic landscape above the clouds. Stage
5 We
still had plans to attack on the last day but with an almost circular circuit
and only 34kms long the final criterium was more a circus than a race with a
48km hour average - Samai of Wismilak again won easily. It was a little
disappointing for us all after the hard battles the days before but credit must
go to the Giant guys who dominated us pretty much through out. On our side it
was also a very satisfactory performance as we are basically a road race team
with no specialists either for the mountains or criteriums and this was very
much a specialist race. Also we were practically the only ones who challenged
the lead (although the Poloygon Kazaks also did their best) which made it extra
difficult but left us with second in teams and 3rd overall individual GC. As
for Tour of East Java , they are already planning for next year and the dreaded
Mt Bromo will be back!!!!
Robin
Reid at the podium with his 3rd place on GC in the Tour of East Java 2005. |
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