Allez Jose Vicente 'JV' Araneta Throwback: Ariel’s bunny-hop

CEBU, Philippines - I remembered it vividly.

It was a Sunday morning at the Mandaue Reclamation Area, almost 15 years ago. Ouano Avenue was still under construction and only the lane going to Cebu was opened to traffic. We had all the Rekla to ourselves, traffic free!

We usually have our weekly crits every Saturday but in those days, we could never get enough of racing so we included Sundays. Now only those diehards show up show up Sundays but since most of us were diehards, everyone that counted showed up.

Even in our small community, rivalries were normal, but due to the nature of the sport, physical contact is unusual, so physical altercations are rare. However, the psychological warfare and subtle intimidation is ever present.

In that particular race, there were only about five of us left with a few laps to go. There was one up ahead (forgot his name) and 4 or 5 of us chasing him. Ariel “Ungo” Genobiagon was the strongest amongst us but Xerox Lauron was the quickest. In that situation, Ariel would like to have Xerox chase or at least help chase to tire him a bit in the sprint. Xerox, on the other hand, knew that he was the fastest and that 2nd place would be his worst finish and therefore had not business wearing himself out by chasing. So Xerox just sat behind Ariel’s wheel following him wherever he went. Xerox slowed down when Ariel did and accelerated when the latter accelerated. Whatever Ariel did to force Xerox to the front failed as Xerox held his nerve. At that point, I knew that Ariel was not only frustrated but also very pissed! He knew he would lose 2nd place if this went on.

He then slowed and moved close to the elevated sidewalk, with Xerox still attach to his behind like a leech.Suddenly, and to everyone’s surprise, he bunny-hopped up the sidewalk and attacked along the sidewalk! The move was brilliant! Not only in Xerox’s and our wildest dreams did we expect that move, We new Xerox couldn’t follow Ariel now.

But instead of scrambling to follow Ariel, we lost it and instead, we screamed in laughter, no, we cheered! Even Ariel lost it. I think he realized later that it was so funny that instead of racing for second place, he slowed down and waited for us to laugh with us. And then we laughed some more all the way to the line.Unfortunately, only a few of us could bear witness, which made the story more legendary every time I rehash it.

Now the reason for this throwback column was that during stage 4 in last weeks’ Tour of Oman, Peter Sagan did the same move in the closing K’s of that race. With a K to go, he bunny-hopped (at about 50kph) to get clear of his breakaway companions Vincenzo Nibali and Rigoberto Uran. While the duo did chase him down successfully, Sagan still won. 

Instead of feeling old harking back the days, that bunny-hop still makes me smile. And I think that only Ungo and Sagan could think and execute that move at that point. Can’t say it enough, just brilliant! (FREEMAN)