|
THE national road team capped an amazing year for
Philippine cycling by emerging overall team champion of the Tour of
Thailand that ended Friday in the mountain resort city of Chiang
Mai.
What they failed to accomplish in
the recent 24th Southeast Asian Games in Nakhon Ratchasima they
pulled off with flourish in the race that covered a total distance
of 999 kilometers in northern Thailand as they led the general team
classification from Day One of the six-stage competition.
The nationals would be bringing
home a second trophy from the Tour. For emerging overall champion,
they automatically topped the Asean division of the competition.
The well-traveled team from Japan
could only finish second to the Filipinos, who were led by the
promising Irish Valenzuela. The 20-year-old Valenzuela, second in
the first stage, was the best-placed Filipino at fifth.
Rounding out the top 10 in the
general team classification of the Category 2.2 race sanctioned by
the Union Cycliste Internationale were Thailand in third, Iran in
fourth, followed by Malaysia, the mixed team Giant Asia, Merida
Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and Vietnam.
A total of 17 teams started in
the race but four backed out, including the Thailand B squad which
ran out of riders because of injury or exhaustion.
Ahad Kazemi of Iran was the
overall individual champion. Indonesia’s Tonton Susanto who raced
for the Dannish team was second, followed by Hosein Jahanbanian also
of Iran in third and SEA Games ITT gold medalisty Mahawong Prajak of
Thailand in fourth.
Lloyd Reynante landed at ninth
place and Victor Espiritu, winner of the SEA Games gold medal in
men’s point race of track, was 16th. Ronald Gorantes placed 37th.
“The riders were at their
peak,” said head coach Jomel Lorenzo. “The program for 2007 was
to have the riders reach their peak in the SEA Games and it was
timely that the Tour of Thailand came just two days after the Games
ended.”
The nationals stayed behind in
Nakhon Ratchasima after the Philippine delegation left Thailand
Sunday.
“It is indeed an amazing year
for cycling and we would want to take advantage of this
morale-boosting and inspiring performance of our cyclists,” said
PhilCycling president Bert Lina.
The Tour of Thailand is only the
second international exposure for the national road team after the
Asian Cycling Championships, which was also staged in Thailand, last
September.
|
