Martinez propels Tarlac to the top

GENERAL SANTOS CITY, Philippines – Tomas Martinez pulled off a dominating performance that shoved him to the top of the overall standings and fanned an early charge of One Tarlac in the second LBC Ronda Pilipinas in neighboring areas here in Sarangani Province yesterday. 

Bucking a bum stomach, Martinez threw caution to the wind and turned in a strong performance that not only netted him the lap victory but also propelled him to the top in the overall individual standings.

He also towed the determined One Tarlac squad to the overall team lead.

The 32-year-old Martinez, an Air Force sergeant, clocked four hours, 24 minutes, 13 seconds, enough to catapult him from a share of 18th after the team trial to the top with an overall individual time of 4:50.59, eight seconds ahead of V-Mobile’s Oscar Rindole and 11 seconds past Phl Army-RC Cola’s Alvin Benosa.

Martinez crossed the finish line unchallenged and was greeted by a huge cheering crowd led by Mayor Darlene Antonino-Custodio and some LBC officials, headed by LBC president Fernando Araneta.

Martinez’s time, along with those of teammates Merculio Ramos and Joseph Millanes, who finished joint fourth on identical clockings of 4:25.32, was enough to shove One Tarlac from No. 5 to No. 1 in the overall team standings with a total time of 13:42.05.

Tarlac, which honed up with non-stop training for three months in Baguio and in Sual and Alaminos, Pangasinan by former champ Loreto Mandi, is, however, just 28 seconds ahead of prologue winner V-Mobile and 2.27 minutes past Phl Army-RC Cola.

“I keep telling my boys that we trained hard for this and we just need to have confidence to win in this kind of race,” said Mandi, who won several laps in his prime and came close to becoming a Tour winner in 1993 if not for an accident that dislodged him from the lead, in Filipino.

“I just knew if we ride with confidence, we will win it and it happened today (yesterday),” added the 42-year-old native of Gerona, Tarlac.

“It’s not in the food I ate at breakfast, maybe it’s the pressure. I’m just glad I managed to recover and regain my stretch in the final 10 kilometers,” said Martinez, who is seeking to improve his solid eighth place finish a year ago.

Martinez’s Stage One conquest was eerily similar to his first lap win from Quezon City to Lucena in the Tour of Luzon three years ago to likewise tow 7-Eleven, his team then, to the early team lead.

“I’ve been to this kind of situation before but I hope I could handle it more this time,” said Martinez, who fizzled out in that same race as teammate Mark John Lexer Galedo came out of nowhere to nail the Tour title.

Martinez also got help from his teammates, particularly Ramos, Millanes and Daniel Asto to help slow down the chasing peloton headed by reigning champion Santy Barnachea of the heavily favored Phl Navy-Standard side.

For the 31-year-old Benosa, he missed his chance again to snatch his first lap victory and settled for just a second place finish in 4:24.22, just two seconds ahead of eventual lap third placer Rindole.

“I was leading last year in the Mindoro stage when I got a flat tire in the final stretch and I ended up second,” said Benosa, a native of Iriga City, Camarines Sur. “I had my chance in this stage but this time, I got cramps.”

Galedo, the 2009 Tour of Luzon titlist and skipper of 7-Eleven, was in the four-man, Martinez-led breakaway group that came close in the final 10km approaching the host city but got dehydrated as their team supply failed to come in time.

Galedo wound up sputtering in 14th place in the stage and 13th overall.

At the end of the day, V-Mobile’s Rey Martin, Navy B-San Miguel’s Reinhard Gorantes, V-Mobile’s Nicardo Guanzon, American Vinyl’s Cris Joven and Metro Manila’s Ronald Gorantes found their way inside the top 10 with times of 4:52.21, 4:52.22, 4:52.22, 4:52.26 and 4:52.28, respectively.

Overnight sensation Orlie Villanueva of V-Mobile sank to 19th overall after hogging the spotlight by ruling the prologue Wednesday.

The 36-year-old Barnachea, out seeking an unprecedented fourth crown in the fabled Tour, continued his leisurely pace as he clawed his way from 35th to 21st overall going into the 145.1km General Santos-Davao City Stage Two today.

Completing the Top 20 were Mindanao’s Dexter Nonato (4:52.33), One Tarlac’s Daniel Asto (4:52.35), Galedo (4:52.36), West Pangasinan’s Arnel Quirimit (4:52.37) and Rene Esteban (4:52.39), Y101FM-Cebu’s Niño Surban (4:52.42), Mindanao’s Tots Oledan (4:52.39), East Pangasinan’s Harvey Sicam (4:52.50), Villanueva (4:52.53) and Army-RC Cola’s John Mier (4:53.00).

Languishing in the middle of the pack were last year’s second placer Joel Calderon of V-Mobile and last year’s third finisher George Oconer of Phl Under-23 team, who were at 39th and 36th places, respectively.

Defending team champion American Vinyl, mentored by multi-titled cyclist and coach Renato Dolosa, surprisingly fell into the abyss after slipping from No. 2 to No. 12 in the overall team race that could endager its title-retention bid if it will not do something about it.

Next to One Tarlac were V-Mobile (13:42.33), Army-RC Cola (13:44.32), West Central Pangasinan (13:44.40), Mindanao (13:44.48), Navy-Standard (13:46.02), Roadbike Phls (13:46.24), Metro Manila (13:46.39), Y101FM-Cebu (13:47.44), Navy B-San Miguel (13:47.57) and Northern Luzon/Ilocos Sur (13:55.22).

Ronda will continue with the lap unfurling here at 9 a.m., pass through gradual descents and some relatively flat roads before running into a peloton-splitting Category 4 ascent in Las Terrazas Subdivision in the outskirts of populous Davao.