World Wide Cycling
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| The Marco Polo Cycling Club participated in the Tour de Korea. Held from 11 untill the 17th of May 2002. Four riders came from New Zealand, and another two riders and the staff came from Europe.
This is the racing program of the Tour de Korea 2002:
May 11, 2002 Prologue (Olympic Park) 1 km May 12, 2002 Stage 1 Criterium (Olympic Park) 106 km 20 laps 5,3 km May 13, 2002 Stage 2 Seoul - Chun Chon 154.7 km May 14, 2002 Stage 3 Chun Chon - Yang Yang 162.2 km May 15, 2002 Stage 4 Yang Yang - Han Kye Mountain - Yang Yang 134.8 km May 16, 2002 Stage 5 Yang Yang - Yang Yang 158.4 km May 17, 2002 Stage 6 Criterium (Yang Yang) 64 km
The following riders are on the team:
President of the Marco Polo Cycling Club. Best Results: participated twice in Tour de France, 1st stage Tour de Suisse,1st stage Tour de Mexico, 1st stage Tour of England, 1st Tour of Cascades. In 2000 Nathan won 10 races, one of them was a stage in the Pahang Cycling Challenge in Malaysia. 2001: Winner Tour du Maroc, 2nd Tour de China, 4th Tour du Faso (Africa), 9th Perlis Open (Malaysia)
Best
Results: 1999 - 2nd Oceania road race, Sydney, 5th Ind. time trial.; Commonwealth
Bank Classic; Tour de Hokkaido, Japan; 10th g.c. Tour of Wellington UCI
2.5
Best
Results: 1st Perlis Open International Mountain Bike Race Malaysia, 1st
Elite Man, Grand-Raid Cristalp Mountain Bike Marathon, Switzerland, 1st
Team Selangor Open Road Race Malaysia, 6th Islamabad-Lahore Road Race
Pakistan
Best results: 1st Ensenada (Mexico), 1st Santa Cruz (USA), 2nd Brisbane (Australia), 3rd stage Islamabad-Lahore (Pakistan), 4th Sacramento (USA) 9th last stage Tour du Maroc, 8th first stage Tour de Hokkaido (Japan).
Lange, Cory, Canada Best Results: Canadian National TT Champ(jr),4th, 4 bridges of Elgin,(uci u-23)2000 2nd King of the Mountains Redlands Bicycle Classic 2001.
Allan, Jason, New Zealand
Report:
May 7 We met at the Amsterdam airport Schiphol for our flight to Seoul, Korea. We were with two riders, me, Remko Kramer from the Netherlands and Cory Lange from Canada, our team manager Allan Wolhuter from South-Africa and soigneur/photographer Francis Cerny from Germany. The rest of the team, 4 Newzealanders would fly in from different countries later. May 8 We had a good flight and arrived
May 8th in Seoul. We were welcomed by our translator, Seon Ha and people
from the cycling federation. They invited us for a real Korean meal. We
sat on the floor at a low table with a kind of May 10 Most teams had arrived the past days and it seemed like it was one big reunion of Marco Polo Cycling Club members and team riders. Most of them riding with their national teams or sponsorteams. Riders who were in Europe like Damir Iratov from Uzbekistan and Jamsran Ulzii-Orshikh from Mongolia and riders who raced with us all over the world like Tonton Susanto from Indonesia.
The team at the start of the Tour de Korea. From left to right; Jason Allan, Remko Kramer, Robin Reid, Nathan Dahlberg, Cory Lange and Tim Vincent. (Photographer; Francis Cerny) May 11, prologue The prologue was a 1 KM time
trial on a winding bike path in the Olympic park. It was just starting
maximal and trying to keep the speed untill the finish. Jason Allan who
is a track specialist had a superstart but had to hit the breaks when
a couple of people crossed the circuit just in front of him. None of us
had great results here.
Sunday May 12 Today we had a criterium in
Seoul around the Olympic park, a 5 KM lap. The speed was high and many
riders tried to get away. We made sure that we had a rider in each break.
Monday May 13 The first part of the stage
was going great we all were active in breaks. A small group without Marco
Polo riders got away but the Kazach team chased them down. On the long
climb later in the stage they made tempo and the peloton got really small.
Only Cory was in the first part. Robin and I (Remko) were in a small group
and went chasing. The Koreans sat on us and we tought they were tired
but as soon as we hit some mountains they attacked on us.
Today Cory Lange went for a
long and successfull break. After a couple of hard climbs in the beginning
we all started to attack to get a guy in a break before the two long climbs
later in the race. Because of the many small breakaways the tempo was
very high. Tim crashed but managed to get back.
Cory on the podium for the stage win. On the right side World Champion of the B-countries Tang from China in the leadar jersey, Cory also took this jersey over. (Photographer; Francis Cerny) Wednesday, May 15: Stage 4 Today we had to defend Cory's leader jersey. Since the rest of us all lost too much time in the mountains we could not play poker, because we only had one card. The weather changed totally today. From nice and sunny and 25 degrees plus, it was now about 15 degrees clouds and strong winds. From the start at sea level we went straight up a mountain of 900 meters. Everybody tried to cover attacks but most of us blew and had to chase the field the rest of the day. Only Robin and Cory were in the main bunch and had to chase a six-man breakaway with two Kazachs, two Iranians, Tang Que Zhong and Tonton Susanto (Indonesian riding for Giant Asia). There was only a little help from other teams and the group had one minute at the finish, so Cory lost his jersey and is now seventh on G.C., one minute down.
Soigneur Francis Cerny and translator Seon Ha celebrating with the leader jersey and the trophies. (Photographer; Remko Kramer) Friday, May 16: Stage 5 What can we do to get back the lead? The only chance is to attack and make the defending teams tired. This will be a hard job since the Kazachs and Iranians are very strong. The weather was terrible, pouring rain and only 10 degrees Celsius. We started our job and Robin got away in a group of six riders. The Kazachs and Iranians had to chase hard to get them back. Later when everybody was cold to the bone, Uzbek rider Kahraman Mominov went for an impressive solo of 90km. When he was out of sight, Nathan took off and attempted to bridge the four minute gap. He never managed but was still 30 seconds behind at the finish and came in second. Going into the final criterium in Yang Yang over 80 kilometers the G.C. remains the same. We are going to give it a try attacking once again tomorrow. Saturday, May 17: Stage 6 The final stage was an 80km criterium in Yang Yang. The circuit was 3km long, the start finish was downtown and there were two bridges to cross with strong sidewinds. We knew the chances were small but we tried everything to make the defending teams tired. Robin Reid was going strong in breaks and Jason Allan had a long solo. But every time Cory tried something the Kazachs and the team of race leader Tang chased him down. In the last laps Nathan tried to go for the stage win, but everything came together for a bunch sprint. The South Africans made tempo and Jason and I had a perfect position when we flew to the last corner at 300 metres before the finish. It was a very wide turn that could be taken at maximum speed. However a Korean rider tried to take a shorter turn and slid away. At 60 km/h he cut our way, but luckily we were able to avoid crashing into him and the others that went down. But our sprint ended with the emergency break we had to make. In the afternoon the race was officially closed with a ceremony. With a four hour bus ride we got back to Seoul. We packed our bikes and went for some drinks in town. The next morning we left to airport to fly to Europe were we will soon meet many of our international team mates. On behalf of the whole team I would like to thank the organizing committee of the Tour de Korea for their great hospitality and the well organised race.
A colourfull scene, the field with flowers beside the road in Seoul. (Photographer; Francis Cerny)
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