Stage 4: a day in the mountains

This was a long day on a bike. More monsoon weather combined with nearly 40 miles of climbing. This stage took us from the water logged east coast across the interior mountain range to the west coast. We climbed in torrential downpours for what felt like hours. I lost contact with the leaders halfway up the first of the two major climbs. The leader of the race (at the time) from Japan was in my group and he had a handful of teammates with him trying desparately to bring him back to the front of the race. Once we crested the first mountain and started decending the backside it cleard up and dried out. We flew down the mountain and proceeded to chase hard all the way through to the finish. We averaged 29 mph from the end of the second climb all the way to the finish so as to limit our losses. We never caught them.

As hard as the day was it was completely epic. Mega climbs, mega downhills and mega weather. The tops of the mountains were absolutely gorgeous. It was the kind of racing very few cyclists ever get the chance to do, and for that I feel lucky. Here is an article out of velo news about the mountain stage if anyone is interested. Talk to you soon. PICS TO COME SHORTLY!

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Cycling/Jelajah Malaysia 2007: Iranians dominate mountain stage

10 Jan 2007
Arnaz M. Khairul

IRANIANS dominated the day as Mehdi Sohrabi claimed the red overall
leader's jersey from Japan's Makoto Ijima after a dramatic Jelajah
Malaysia fourth stage from Bukit Bunga to Grik yesterday, which was
won by Sohrabi's teammate, Hossein Ashkari.

It was the only climbing stage of the tour and one that the main
protagonists had been waiting for, but first the entire peloton had to
contend with a thunderstorm as they raced with the clouds at the
summit of Titiwangsa, and Sohrabi was part of the decisive three-man
breakaway, with compatriots Ghader Mizbani and Ashkari, that surged
ahead after 60 kilometres.

Sohrabi, the 26-year-old reigning Asian champion, came into the stage
trailing previous leader Ijima by just one minute and five seconds and
was the best placed contender to wrest the lead yesterday.

"It is the first race of the season and I'm happy to get the first
leader's jersey of the season. Ijima is a strong rider, but I knew
that he would have some problems in this stage. We knew that this
would be the stage that would decide the race and this was the day we
had been waiting for," said Sohrabi.

"After this, we have three flat stages and if the team can do this
well, I think there won't be any problem holding on to this jersey
until the finish."

Not only did the stage win and overall lead go to Iranians, it was as
if the leading trio had made a pact — Tabriz Petrochemicals rider
Sohrabi to take the red jersey, Giant Asia rider Ashkari for the stage
win and teammate Mizbani the polka dot jersey for the mountains
classification.

Mizbani took the mountains classification after winning all three
mountains stages at the Kelantan-Perak border, Titiwangsa and
Barricade.

It was good enough for the two Giant Asia riders Mizbani and Ashkari,
who had been competing with spare bicycles when their bikes did not
arrive with them when their flight from Teheran landed in Kuala Lumpur
last week.

"Only last night we received our bikes, but we decided not to change.

"It wasn't a problem to continue with the spare bikes," said Mizbani,
who will also be in the Giant Asia team for Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL)
next month.

"Iranian riders are good climbers. So, from the start of this race, we
were waiting for this stage although since it is the first race of the
season, nobody understood the situation. But we knew that this stage
would be important for all the jerseys and we were prepared for this,"
said Mizbani.

With a flat 117.3km stage from Sungai Petani to Taiping today, it
could be easy for the defence of the leader's jersey, and all Mizbani
has to do is finish the race and his polka-dot jersey is his

Tom

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