Lomotos, Lim enter top 10 in Tour de Borneo

MANILA, Philippines – Ronald Lomotos kept in step with the leaders as he rode with the 80-man mass finish to stay in third overall even as LBC-MVP Sports Foundation Cycling Pilipinas teammate Rustom Lim took one of the two intermediate sprint races of the day to barge into the top 10 in the Tour de Borneo 2013 in Sabah, Malaysia Tuesday.

Lomotos wound up 16th in the peloton of the 132.6-km Penampang-Kota Kinabalu Stage Three that was topped by Mohd Hariff Saleh of TSG with Anuar Manan of BCP and Zamri Mohd Salleh also of TSG completing the podium finish with identical times of three hours, 20 minutes and 39 seconds.

Mehdi Sohrabi of TPT, who ruled Stage Two the day before to zoom to the top, gave it all he got in the frantic sprint to the finish only to wind up fourth that failed to add up on his overall lead against Stage One winner Paul Van der Ploeg of TCO and Lomotos, who zoomed to No. 3 after finishing second the lap before.

After three stages and with two more to go, Sohrabi has an aggregate clocking of 10:44.27, three seconds ahead of Van der Ploeg, who gained a one-second time bonus for a third place finish in one of the sprints of the stage, with 10:44.30 and eight over a dangerous Lomotos with 10:44.35.

Lim also stole some of the thunder by reigning supreme in the second of the two sprint laps, an 86.9-km stretch in Berungis, to leapfrog from out of nowhere to No. 8 overall with a time of 10:44.38, or just 11 ticks away from the pace-setting Sohrabi.

The next best Filipino riders in the top 10 were 7Eleven-Roadbike Phl's Mark Galedo, Ronda Pilipinas' second edition Tour king, and another LBC-MVPSF bet Ronald Oranza, who were at Nos. 7 and 10 with times of 10:44.37 and 10:44.38.

LBC-MVPSF's Junrey Navarra lost the King of the Mountain lead to Endra Wijaya of CCC, who topped the only KOM of the day – a Category 4 @75.3-km lap in Tamparuli – and skidded to No. 2.

Wijaya and Navarra and two others, Loh Sea Keong of TSI and Ali Shahbana Agung of CCC all have identical 4 KOM points going into the last two stages.