Shulchenko stays ahead as big Stage 10 challenge comes
CANDON, Ilocos Sur—Nikita Shulchenko retained his overall lead in the MPTC Tour of Luzon despite threats from local riders led by national road race champion Ronnilan Quita in a wild Stage 9 won by Denmark’s Daniel Guld.
But with one of the most difficult stages set on Saturday, Quita believes a looming change is about to come with five back-breaking laps left in the summer cycling spectacle. And both Quita and Shulchenko’s LCW UAE Cycle Filipino handler are telling everyone to watch for big moves from hereon.
“There will be a lot of changes that will happen. Just watch,” Quita, the 7-Eleven Roadbike Philippines ace, said after placing fourth in the 137.6-kilometer lap that began in Laoag and traversed through the towns of Ilocos Norte to this province.
Shulchenko’s formidable lead remained intact after placing 36th overall on Friday. The Russian rider’s 26-hour, one-minute and 59-second aggregate time is still 1:38 ahead of teammate Ibrahiem Alrefai and 4:15 in front of 7-Eleven’s Mervin Corpuz.
Quita jumped to fourth from sixth after eating 27 seconds off Shulchenko’s lead to trail by 4:19 after being part of a seven-man lead pack and even going on a solo breakaway for several kilometers.
Feeling the pressure
But it was Guld of CCN Factory Racing who wound up taking the lap at three hours and 13:02 after overtaking two riders from Team Pangasinan in Benedict Soriano and Daniel Farinas in the final 200 meters that had a gradual ascent towards the finish at Candon City Arena, the site of the recent PBA and PVL All-Star Games.
LCW admitted that it is feeling the pressure of Shulchenko and Alrefai being targeted by its closest pursuers after spending the day in the peloton with other riders in the top 10, namely Corpuz, Excellent Noodles’ Tyler Hannay, MPT’s Nash Lim, 7-Eleven’s Antoine Huby and MPT’s Rustom Lim.
The lead pack created a four-minute advantage over that peloton before Shulchenko made an attempt to close the gap starting in the last 15km entering the Ilocos Sur town of Santiago.
They, plus 43 riders, reached the finish 23 seconds behind Guld.
“We can feel that our riders are heavily guarded, especially by those from teams that are in contention for the individual GC and that is something that we will try to resolve and pull them ahead,” said LCW’s Filipino coach Johnrey Buccat.
As for Stage 10, Buccat vowed for a reckoning, saying: “We will make up for it in Stage 10, just wait for it.”
