Dane outperforms divided local bets to rule Tour of Luzon Stage 9
CANDON, Ilocos Sur — Everyone knows that the only way to stop the ongoing carnage at the hands of the merciless foreign mercenaries is to unite.
They haven’t yet.
No thanks to the lack of solidarity, another international rider in Daniel Ridwan Guld of CCN emerged victorious yet again in Stage 9 of the MPTC Tour of Luzon Friday before a huge, boisterous crowd beside the Candon City Arena here.
The 25-year-old Guld, who was loaned by 7-Eleven Roadbike Philippines just for this race, unleashed the last of his reservoir of strength in the final100-meter uphill stretch to top the 137.6-kilometer in three hours, 13 minutes and two seconds.
The tall, lanky Dane outsprinted Pangasinan’s Benidict Soriano and Daniel Jay Fariñas to rule the relatively flat lap that unfurled in Laoag and ended in this component city dubbed as the country’s tobacco capital.
“Trying to push hard because I knew in the end they would get close to us,” said Guld, who dedicated his first stage win since winning one in Japan three years to her fiancée back home.
“I knew that hill suited me, I like short climbs like this so it was a perfect stage for me,” he added.
7-Eleven’s Ronilan Quita checked in at fourth, and along with Excellent Noodles’ Sumiso Basalan, Go for Gold’s Marc Ryan Lago and Metro Pacific Tollways Drive Hub’s Rrking Roque, submitted the same clocking as the stage’s podium finishers.
But it could have been Quita celebrating at the finish had he not overshot the final right turn.
“In the last one kilometer, I completely missed the right turn and surged forward instead,” an emotional Quita.
It was Quita who spearheaded the breakaway group early and kept it along with six remaining riders in Narvacan, or 30 km to the end, when they had led the massive chase pack that included yellow jersey wearer Nikita Shulchenko of LCW UAE.
It was so impressive that Quita had eaten away at a more than four minutes deficit and provisionally moved to second overall, or just a few seconds behind the Russian leader in Narvacan.
But lack of cooperation and help from his countrymen, who refused to take turns in front, prevented Quita from sustaining it.
Adding insult to injury was that mistake in the end.
“It was hard to sustain the lead without help, it was really painful,” he said.
Shulchenko remained untouchable up front with an aggregate time of 26:01:59, 1:38 minutes atop Syrian teammate Ibrahiem Arefai and 4:15 faster than 7-Eleven’s Mervin Corpuz.
If there’s any consolation, Quita moved up to No. 4 from No. 6 and cut his deficit from 4:46 to 4:19 with five stages to go, including today’s 131.65 km Stage 10 unfolding here and ending in Cervantes atop the dreaded Bessang Pass, a steep 30 km ascent.
Rounding out the top 10 were Excellent Noodles’ Tyler Douglas Hannay (26:06:33), MPTD’s Nash Lim (26:06:39), 7-Eleven’s Antoine Huby (26:06:41), MPTD’s Rustom Lim (26:08:23), Seoul’s Jung Woo Ho (26:08:27) and Ponti Wijaya’s Muhammad Raihan Maulidan (26:08:33).
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