It’s Pagliarini again at the Tour de Langkawi

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By Jason Sumner, VeloNews Associate Editor

Pagliarini shines after another win.

Photo: Jason Sumner

The third day of the 2003 Tour de Langkawi lacked the bloody drama of its predecessor, but when the bunch cleared the line in the mining city of Ipoh the result was the same. For the second day in a row Brazilian Mendonca Pagliarini took a sprint-finish win in Malaysia. The pair of victories are the first of the 24-year-old’s 2-year pro cycling career.

In the chase for the overall, there was no change at the top, as Saturn’s Nathan O’Neill maintained his 23-second lead over Canadian national team rider Roland Green.

O’Neill slipped on the yellow jersey again.

Photo: Jason Sumner

Like the day before, this 169.6km run from Kulim to Ipoh has nearly dead flat, the exception a short category 3 climb 102km into the stage. This small test was aced by Belgium’s Thierry De Groote (Palmans-Collstrop), who was one of four riders that spent most of the day off the front in a break that was eventually reeled in with 10km to go. The others in the break included Italian Simone Mori (Telekom Malaysia), Selemat Shahrizan (Malaysian National) and Sirous Hashemzadeh (Iranian National). Their margin over the peloton peaked at 4:06, but came down with little problem once the main group decided they’d seen enough.

Once things were back together it was Pagliarini’s Lampre team quickly heading to the front. Up there as well were Panaria and Credit Agricole, all of them looking to set up their man for the dash to the finish. But again it was Pagliarini’s day, as he had little problem holding off the late charges of Italian Moreno Di Biase (Formaggi) and Aussie Graeme Brown (Panaria). Pagliarini posted a winning time of 3:53:55, the same given to the entire field of 135.

“It was very much the same as yesterday,” said Pagliarini. “My teammates were close to me and did a good job keeping me safe.”

The number of race starters dropped from the day before after three riders involved in the dramatic crashes of Saturday were unable to make it to the start line Sunday. Among those was Saturn’s Charles Dionne. Instead of racing the French Canadian was on his way home to Quebec to undergo surgery for a broken finger.

“The doctors here thought he was going to be out for two months,” said Saturn team manager Andrzej Bek. “He has an open fracture on his index finger. He also had to have a bunch of stitches in his leg, because his skin was completely open.”

The break was away for most of the race.

Photo: Jason Sumner

To add insult to injury, the best flight race organizers could get Dionne on was across the Pacific, through Los Angeles, then Boston, and then finally to Quebec City (flying east across Europe and the Atlantic is much quicker). Once back in Canada, Dionne was to check back into the hospital.

If there was an upside to Dionne’s injury, it was that his team, now without a sprinter, could focus solely on the overall.

“It simplifies our goals,” race leader O’Neill admitted. “Now we just have to take care of myself and a couple of the other guys who are in good position.”

Indeed, besides O’Neill Saturn has four riders in the top 15, with Tom Danielson its next highest placed rider in third at 0:24.

The 10-day, 1343.5 km race continues Monday with first real climbing test, which comes just 29km into the 172.9km trip from Gerik to Tanah Merah.

Click here for all the coverage and reports from the Tour de Langkawi.

NORTH AMERICAN RECAP
Outside of Dionne, the North American contingent in Malaysia managed to escape the second stage without any serious injuries, and all finished in the bunch on day 3. Gord Fraser had the most to complain about going into stage 3, as he had bandaged road rash on most of the right side of his body.

Team Canada grabs a spare bike.

Photo: Jason Sumner

Canadian national team member Peter Wedge had his own set of problems after his stage 2 crash left him with a badly mangled bike. “My fork’s busted, front wheel’s all messed up, broke a shoe and a shifter,” lamented Wedge, who’s riding his own personal gear right now because he’s yet to resign with Kona, though he thinks the deal will eventually get done.

To get Wedge back out racing Sunday, his team mechanic cobbled his bike back together using the fork from team director Kris Westwood’s bike. Westwood, meanwhile, had to borrow a bike from Mavic neutral support just so he had a least one option if one of his guys ran into trouble on stage 3.

SINGLED OUT
A day removed from the carnage of stage 2, the consensus among the peloton was that Panaria’s Ruben Bongiorno of Italy was the man at fault. “The guy was putting his hands all over people, pushing and shoving,” said Canada’s Fraser, who came back to finish 11th Sunday after crashing hard the day before. “It was totally unprofessional.”

Rumors were even circulating that Credit Agricole’s Stuart O’Grady had punched Bongiorno after stage 2, but O’Grady said it didn’t go that far. “I just told him very firmly that what he did wasn’t cool,” said O’Grady. “It was the most ridiculous sprinting I’ve ever seen.”

JERSEY UPDATE
Yellow (Overall leader): Nathan O’Neill — The Saturn rider owns a 24-second lead over Canadian Roland Green.
Green (Points): Mendonca Pagliarini — His two stage wins give him 30 points, three more than Aussie Graeme Brown.
Polka Dot (KoM): Thierry De Groote and Fortunato Baliani are tied with six points each. Baliani keeps the jersey because he scored his points first.
Blue (Top Asian rider): Iran’s Hossain Askari held the lead he first took in the stage 1 time trial.

TEAM STANDINGS
1. Saturn
2. Canada, at 1:00
3. Colombia-Selle Italia, at 1:17
4. Panaria, at 1:22
5. Relax-Fuenlabrada, at 2:06