Photo: Casey B. Gibson

Canadian rocket Eric Wohlberg stormed through a tight 18km circuit in central Melaka to take the time-trial stage of the Telekom Malaysia Le Tour de Langkawi on Tuesday.

“I went as hard as I could. It was really tough out to the turn but I had the lead at that point and was really surfing coming back,” Wohlberg said at the finish.

It was a double triumph for the strong man, originally from Ontario but now residing in California, as he also led his compatriots Roland Green and Peter Wedge to the team prize.

Wohlberg’s success was not unexpected. A specialist in the discipline, Wohlberg has been Canadian time-trial champion eight times in his career, as well as taking the Commonwealth title in 1998 and the Pan American Games gold the following year.

The day’s real interest, though, lay in who would prove to be fastest man from the Colombia-Selle Italia team, which has held the overall race lead ever since the tour started in earnest on the run from Ipoh to Tanah Rata. The opening stage had been declared a non-event due to traffic problems.

Perez back in yellow
Columbia’s strongest proved to be the gutsy 28-year-old Marlon Perez , who took second in the stage, some 13 seconds behind Wohlberg, to reclaim the jersey he had conceded to teammate Freddy Gonzalez the previous day.

Gonzalez was way back in 29th place in the time trial, losing 1:22.16 seconds to Wohlberg and 1:09 to Perez.

Perez, who won the Vuelta a Tachira tour in Venezuela earlier this year, is now surely the designated leader of the Colombia-Selle Italia team. He can count on Gonzalez’s aid to help preserve his advantage, but with less than a minute covering the first 10 riders on overall classification the race is still wide open.

“I felt very good today,” said a happy Perez, “It’s the second time trial of the year for me and I have finished second both times. I am still feeling a bit sore from my crash on stage three but I am getting better every day.”

“I will need to use a bit of psychology on my two lads,” commented Colombia-Selle Italia manager Gianni Savio. “It’s natural that they both want to win, but the danger if they don’t ride to common purpose then someone else could sneak in to win.”

One of the day’s big winners was the Spaniard Hector Guerra Garcia of Relax-Bodysol – rated by Savio as the man to watch – who took a fine fourth place in the time trial. That ride leapfrogged him over Gonzalez into second place on the overall standings and made him a serious contender for the final title.

With a trio of great Latin climbers now in the top three places, the tour is shaping up for a battle royal when it reaches the Genting Highlands in four days' time. But the relatively flat stages before then could at last give the big-hitter sprinters like Graeme Brown and Luciano Pagliarini – winners of five stages between them last year – a chance to shine.

They are, however, already well out of the hunt for the overall sprint title and its blue jersey as Canada’s American-domiciled star Gordon Fraser, Health Net, already has a commanding lead in that classification. His 45 points give him a solid nine points margin over his closest challenger, Perez, with none of the big-name sprinters yet having made it into the top 10 in this classification – a reflection of the hilly nature of the route so far.

“I’ve been feeling very good in the sprints and concentrated on going for the intermediates rather than the stage wins,” said Fraser. “All the hard miles of training I put in back home in Tucson (Arizona) are really paying off.”

Motivated
Greg Henderson, the Kiwi racing for Health Net, set the early fast time of the day - 22:26.30. His leading time would last for only a few minutes, because Russel Van Hout (Colombia-Selle Italia) knocked 12 seconds off almost immediately. Van Hout held the lead for an hour and six minutes, until Lieswyn took off another 14 seconds.

Unfortunately, Lieswyn had no chance to savor his result, because Wohlberg was his minute man, and came across the line 21 seconds faster.

Lieswyn takes third

Photo: Casey B. Gibson

Both riders credited each other for making them push harder in the race.

"Having John out there really helped; it gave me a strong rider to chase. I could tell I was taking time out of John, but except for the time check at the turnaround I didn't really know how well I was doing." said Wohlberg. "The way out was very hard, and I was really suffering on the way back in, but I had enough left to pull it out. I felt like I was really on the gear, and when that happens I always have a good ride. Alex (Lavallee) lent me a set of wheels and the staff on the team is really working hard for us, so I'm happy that I could pull out a good ride for the team."

Lieswyn, a first timer at Langkawi, surprised himself with his result.

"I didn't think top-three was possible here, I was going to be happy with a top-10,” he said. “But, there's not a whole lot of time trialists in this race – most of the teams send sprinters and climbers – so I thought that there was a chance for a good ride. I just decided to give it all the stick I could from the gun, and I had a real motivation of not wanting to see Eric in the rear view."

Lieswyn also had a slight problem with an erratic driver from another team's vehicle.

"The Iran car almost put me into the parked cars when I was coming by them,” he recalled. “The way was wide open initially, but then he started to drift over to the cars. I had to bang on his car and hit the brakes, I lost maybe five or 10 seconds. Without it I might have got second, but I couldn't have beaten Eric; he really smoked it today."

Wohlberg and Lieswyn remained in the 1-2 spots until Perez, who started third from last, bumped the Health Net rider down one step on the podium by a slim three-quarters of a second. The Colombian admitted to still feeling a little sore from his crash, but sported a broad smile as he donned the yellow jersey.

"I felt very good today when I started. This is my second time trial this year, and the second time that I have finished second. Normally,Colombians are not so good in time trials, but now (Santiago) Botero has won the world championship, and I won the Pan Am championship, so we are getting better every year."

The time-trial win boosted Wohlberg into 14th place overall, 2:24 behind Perez, with Green a further 21 seconds back in 15th and Lieswyn at the same time in 16th. Charles Dionne (Team Canada) is the next North American in the standings – 36th at 6:08. The tour continues tomorrow with a flat 175km run down the west coast from Muar to Johor Bahru.

Race note
Wohlberg pointed out that his result shows how problematic the IOC and UCI selection process is for the Olympic Games in the time trial.

"I can win here against an international field and finish top 25 at theworld’s, but Canada doesn't get a spot for Athens in the time trial.It's just frustrating." The UCI restricts entry to the top 25countries, and Canada is currently in 28th place.

A look ahead: Stage 6
The race is expected to turn aggressive as riders who have lost time in today's time trial will try to recover and gain back some time in this longest stage from Muar to Johor Bahru. Expect some intense action and hot rivalry on the road with another mass sprint finish on the cards.