Spanish ace tops Stage 3; Whitehouse hangs on

MANILA, Philippines - DAET, Camarines Norte – Spain’s Fernando Grijalba of Kuwait Cartucho.Es poured it all in the final stretch to take the top podium finish in Stage Three of the eighth Le Tour de Filipinas from Naga to this  Bicol city  yesterday.

Grijalba, ranked third in Stage Two and fourth overall entering the Naga-Daet leg, broke away from the main peloton with nine others to join the four chasers of the lead pack in Bitukang Manok at the 155.99-km mark of the 177.35-km race, its winding road providing the challenge in an otherwise monotonous, mostly flat route.

Grijalba and his group eventually caught up with the lead pack with the Spanish rider unleashing a strong finishing kick to win in 4:14:03, the same time logged by 11 others.

They included third – and fourth-running individual general classification contenders Benjamin Hill of Attaque Team Gusto and Ryu Suzuki of Bridgestone Anchor Cycling Team who placed second and third, respectively, and 2015 champion Thomas Lebas of Kinan Cycling Team and Filipinos Rustom Lim and Arjay Peralta of 7-Eleven Sava Roadbike Philippines.

“I am pretty fast in little groups. I am faster and I tried to stay all together and then beating everyone in the sprint,” said Grijalba, a former pro continental cyclist of Spanish team Caja Rural.

Daniel Whitehouse, who paced the main peloton in the last 50-km but struggled to finish at 37th in 4:15:30, still kept the yellow jersey with a 12:30:54 aggregate, but Grijalba and Hill edged closer to  the Briton moving to within 23 seconds in the individual general classification.

Whitehouse, however, said it won’t be an easy fight in the culminating 207.35-km Stage Four from Daet to Lucena featuring a Category 2 punishing climb at the dreaded Tatlong Eme in Atimonan, Quezon today.

“I will give it my all until I die. Until I fall off the bike,” said Whitehouse who topped Stage One’s King of the Mountain summit.

Guy Kalma of Attaque Team Gusto ruled the two sprints in this leg, with a route marked by uneven roads and road repairs.

Lim came in at seventh, the best stage finish dished out by a Filipino in the event this year, followed by Peralta, part of the early nine-man breakaway group, at ninth.

Locals George Oconer of the national team and Mark Bonzo of Laos’ CCN Cycling Team, whose uncle Carlito, LTdF race marshall, and 1976 Marlboro Tour champion and PhilCycling delegate Modesto awaited him at the finish line, were also with Peralta in the lead pack from the first 10-km. But he lost steam and fell behind at the Camarines Sur-Camarines Norte Highway Boundary with 28-km left.