Filipinos take stage podium, while Mumford retains lead at Luzon

Editor’s Note: These days we’ve become accustomed to receiving race reports, detailed results, photos and videos nearly in real time from even the most far-flung locations. But there are still places where smart phones are not so sharp, twittering still belongs to the birds in the trees, stage profiles are revealed on the start line and results arrive on a hand-written scraps of paper — if that. Our correspondent Steve Thomas is finding that the Tour of Luzon in the Philippines is one of those places. We apologize if our reports on the race have been somewhat spotty, but we hope you enjoy the adventure conveyed in Steve’s words and photos. You can read all his reports on the Tour of Luzon page and see his photos in the Tour of Luzon gallery.

By Steve Thomas

The great Filipino adventure continued as the riders headed into stage 6 of the Tour of Luzon, with little idea of what lay in wait for them. But within a few kilometers of starting out on the Subic-Subic stage they soon got a grasp of things: that this would be one ultra hot, hilly and gruelling stage.

In a reversal of stages, on Thursday the riders tackled what had been scheduled for Friday’s stage, and Friday they will tackle what should have been Thursday’s stage. But, either way around this will certainly toughen things up and make for two very hot and tough days of racing, on top of the killer hill top finish of stage 5.

Stage 5 had fallen to the local Filipino riders, although the overall game between the American Kelly Benefit Strategies team and the South African EMG team was becoming the biggest story, with KBS showing more depth. However EMG’s powerhouse James Perry and climber Dennis Von Nikalk seem to be bringing  the competition closer with every hilly stage. And let’s not forget the locals — they are very much in the running. One surprise attack could see the foreigners outgunned and outnumbered, as they were on stage 6.

The climbing started almost as soon as the red flag lifted, and so did the attacking. There was a KOM line within the first few kilometers, and the local riders were all out to get the points, which completely split the field, leaving several riders off the back. KBS and EMG were under duress to cover any threatening move, with not knowing quite what lay ahead.

As the race rounded the Bataan Peninsular the climbing continued. Long, hot and steep, with little respite in-between was the order of the stage. Von Nikalk was clearly showing his strength on the climbs, which was a little alarming for the KBS team, who had not anticipated such a tough day in the saddle, as director Jacob Eker confirmed; “It was far more that we’d expected, a really good, but tough stage, some rough roads, but good.”

Around halfway through, a group of seven riders went away, but with GC time gaps to the local riders being so close, EMG and KBS combined to chase it down. The chase forced another split, leaving three local riders off the front, another group of seven behind (containing KBS’ Ryan Anderson and EMG’s Perry),  followed by a group of 15 or so riders. All of the main GC contenders were in this pack.

Once again it was to be a day for the locals, with Irish Valenzuela of the American Vinyl team winning the sprint from Smart Team’s Joel Calderon, and Baler Ravina training in behind them. A minute later Anderson led the chase group home. The GC changed very little, with KBS’ Reid Mumford leading by 2 seconds from teammate David Veilleux. In third place is EMG’s stringy climbing ace, Von Nikalk, who is looking forward to another hilly stage Friday.

“It’s good for me, I was being followed every where today, we just need to work out a way …” Von Nikalk said.

FILED UNDER: News / Race Report / Road TAGS: Tour of Luzon