Irish champ defies heat, rules Le Tour first stage

TAGAYTAY , Philippines  – David McCann, a multi-titled Irish road and track specialist fresh from a championship ride in the Tour of Taiwan, displayed his strong will and brilliant riding skills in winning the first stage of the Le Tour de Filipinas starting and ending in this scenic mountaintop city yesterday.

McCann, the 37-year-old three-time Irish national road race champion and five-time national time-trial champion, lived up to his lofty status right on Day One of the four-day race, bucking the scorching summer heat for a solo finish before a good weekend crowd gathered in the vicinity of the Tagaytay Convention Center.

Unfamiliar with the up-and-down 142km route around Taal Lake, the towering 6-foot-5 Irish champ rode with the main peleton most of the way before leaving them one by one, showing unmatched strength in the climb back to Tagaytay via Sungay Road, dreaded for its slopes and hairclip curves.

Lloyd Reynante and Baler Ravina, Filipino riders with great mountain-climbing skills, offered some challenge but just couldn’t keep up with McCann’s pace.

“I suffered cramps midway through the Sungay climb. I had no more to give because the foreign riders set a sustained fast pace through the flat rides. There’s no rest for us riding with these international bets,” said Ravina.

McCann, who’s also a former champion in Tour of Korea, Tour of Indonesia, Tour of Ulster, Tour of Hokkaido and Tour of Milad du Nour (Iran), topped the sun-baked opening stage in 3:29:02, winning by over two minutes over Reynante and Ravina who had identical clockings of 3:31.51.

Irish Valenzuela finished fourth (4:04 behind), followed by Joel Calderon (5:01 behind), Cris Joven (5:01), Oscar Rendole (5:48), Ferdinand Pablo (6:51) and South African Jaques Janse Van Rensburg (6:15) to round up the Top 10.

American Vinyl led the general team classification with 10:43:59, 2:34 ahead of Smart and 8:16 over 7-Eleven.

“It’s a hard race because it’s very hot,” said McCann, riding in this race for the Taiwan-based Giant Asia Racing Team.

Another champion foreign rider, Sascha Damrow of Germany, showed great class through the downhill and flat rides only to slow down in the Sungay ascent.

Miscalculation had the 2009 Tour of Tobago champion wasting away a minute advantage he had built over an 11-man group including McCann, Reynante, Ravina, Valenzuela, Calderon, Joven, Elmo Ramos, Emil Pablo, Japanese Shinri Suzuki and South African Allen Travis.

Damrow had an earlier breakaway attempt just about 20 kilometers from the start but he failed to sustain the assault with no one coming to his aid.

He drifted back with the peleton before hitting Tuy town, then Arnel Quirimit, Japanese Yoshinori Iino, South African Seyffet Pieter and Reynante made their own futile attack.

Joven and Pablo, teammates with the American Vinyl team, managed to peel off from the pack but had to slow down, crying for water which could not be supplied by their support vehicle crawling in midday traffic in Lipa, Tanauan and Cuenca.

As expected, the 112 riders figured in a fierce race promptly, considering it’s a short four-day event, which has the Roxas Boulevard Circuit Race as Stage Two today.

“We’ll see how it goes,” said McCann, not promising anything for today’s race starting at 9 a.m.

Before Stage One, the local riders were in high spirits, believing the international riders would have a hard time coping with the country’s hot weather.

And that’s the reason why no one gave Damrow a chase as the lanky German rider made an early breakaway attempt.

“Mauubos iyan (He would run out),” one Filipino rider in the pack prophetically hollered to the media covering the event.

The local riders, however, didn’t anticipate the fast pace they would go through with the foreign bets in this Category 2.2 UCI-sanctioned event organized by the Dynamic Outsource Solutions Inc., presented by Tanduay and co-presented by Smart and Air21.

“Grabe ang bilis ng karera. Ubos kami,” said Ravina.

TOUR NOTES: David McCann is a renowned Irish professional rider that he has his own Wikipedia page revealing that he was once slapped a six-month suspension after testing positive for a banned substance. But he has recovered from that 2002 incident, allowing him to ride for Team Endurasport.com-Principia, Colavita Sutter Home Cycling Team and Giant Asia Racing Team. Last September, McCann broke Chris Boardman’s long-standing British 25-mile time trial record in Port Talbot. Later on, he finished an excellent 11th in the World Championships Elite Time Trial in Mendrisio, Switzerland.