Drama at Le Tour de Filipinas Stage 2 | Race Results and Review
Oscar Rendole of Mail and More made Philippine cycling history yesterday as he became the first ever Filipino to win a UCI sanctioned race. Today, Filipino cycling veteran Arnel Quirimit, of GO21 repeated that feat as he won the 35 degree, sun baked, fast and the furious paced stage 2 of Le Tour de Filipinas.
Drama in the race is getting better and better, a Filipino may have won the first two stages, but Timo Scholz of CCN stole the spotlight as he managed go under the radar of the radars and win the coveted yellow jersey. Timo sneaked past and won 3rd place, enough to give him a 26 second lead over the second placer in the general classification (gc) Alexander Malone of PBR and a 1:06 lead over the previous days yellow jersey and stage winner, Oscar Rendole.
Arnel Quirimit won and is also now the owner of the green jersey (best sprinter) while the white jersey (best young rider) is still owned by R Roque of American Vinyl / LPGMA.
Mail and More still leads the team classification stage. A full 2 seconds over second placer, American Vinyl/LPGMA.
The race is still proving to be a struggle for top pinoy bet Joel Calderon, of Mail and More, “hindi ako maka rekta”, said the feisty pinoy cyclist.
Tomorrow marks the first mountain stages of the tour, “bakbakan na, magkaka-alaman na” said stage 1 winner Oscar Rendole. “Tignan natin kung gano sila (foreigners) kagaling umakyat”.
Download the complete LTdF 2012 Stage 2 Results here.
The 102.52kms stage 3 of the Le Tour de Filipinas kicks off tomorrow! We’re riding from Cauayan City all the way to Bayombong Nueva Viscaya.
Keep praying and keep cheering for our Filipino cyclists! Watch out for updates here on SBR.ph!
Sidenote :
For those wondering what happened to the 3 triathletes (CDG, Jojo Lontok, and Andrew Chinalpan) who joined Le Tour de Filipinas, being master tacticians of pacing, we arrived at the finish line way ahead of the Peloton. We could’ve made history too, being the first three pinoy triathletes / cycling converts to ever win a uci staged race. But the thing is, we rode a full 2 1/2 hours ahead of the pack :)
