Lomotos rides with tour leaders, remains at third

Ronald Lomotos stuck it out with the leaders and rode with the 80-man group to the finish to remain third overall even as LBC-MVP Sports Foundation Cycling Pilipinas teammate Rustom Lim ruled one of the two intermediate sprint races 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 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, 39 seconds.

Mehdi Sohrabi of TPT, who topped Stage Two to wrest the overall lead, gave it all he got in a sprint to the finish but settled for fourth and failed to add up on his overall lead against Stage One winner Paul Van der Ploeg of TCO and Lomotos.

With two more legs to go, Sohrabi posted an aggregate clocking of 10:44.27, three seconds ahead of Van der Ploeg, who gained a one-second time bonus for finishing third in one of the sprints races, with 10:44.30 and eight over Lomotos, who has 10:44.35 clocking.

Lim also made his presence felt by taking the second of the two sprint laps, an 86.9-km race in Berungis, as he moved to No. 8 overall with a time of 10:44.38, or 11 seconds away from the pacesetting 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 are at Nos. 7 and 10 with times of 10:44.37 and 10:44.38, respectively.