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TUGUEGARAO, CAGAYAN—The MPTC Tour of Luzon for Sunday basically followed the one the day before, as foreigners kept local riders at bay as the LCW UAE Cycle team once again dominated Stage 5.
Russian Ivan Anisimov became the first to win back-to-back stages after denying local bet Ryan Tugawin a victory following a mass finish of a relatively flat stage that ended in this city, before saying that he is trying to make hay while the sun shines, so to speak, with the 14-stage summer spectacle on wheels counting down the last laps before the climbs.
Anisimov crossed the finish after the 130.4-kilometer journey from Santiago in Isabela to this progressive sun-baked city in two hours, 47 minutes and 26 seconds as he led a 48-man bunch that included the 1-2 running Nikita Shulchenko and 19-year-old Syrian Ibrahiem Alrefai.
“It’s amazing. I don’t know how we’re doing it,” said Anisimov when asked of LCW’s superiority after five laps of the storied cycling event. “Ibrahim is strong, Nikita is very strong and I’m a sprinter. For the team, it’s very good.”
But Anisimov and LCW know that they can’t rest on their laurels, with difficult stages ahead as the Tour of Luzon heads way up north.
The bikathon reaches its longest stage yet, a 228km ride for Pagudpud in Ilocos Norte for Stage 6, which is another sprint race that may benefit Anisimov.
Already, though, he and LCW are looking way ahead, given that the next stages set in Ilocandia and then the cycling hotbed of Pangasinan and the final stage decider in Baguio will have climbs that are going to test the limits of the LCW contingent.
“The last stage is going to be too hard. Too hard for me,” said Anisimov, who, despite two straight lap wins, is running 61st out of the reduced 81-strong individual field.
Locals stuck at one
Tugawin came close to becoming the second local bet to take home a stage triumph after Go for Gold’s Dave Montemayor ruled the third lap.
“He was just too strong for me,” said Tugawin in Filipino, referring to Anisimov.
Shulchenko has a five-stage aggregate of 13:46:45, still 49 seconds clear of Alrefai and over two minutes over Montemayor and other Filipinos, Sumiso Basalan of Excellent Noodles and fan favorite Mervin Corpuz of 7-Eleven Roadbike Philippines.
Montemayor still trails exactly by 2:04, Basalan by 2:09, Corpuz by 2:15, his French teammate Antoine Ruby and Standard Insurance Philippines’ Dave Cangayao both by 2:16. National champion Ronnilan Quita of 7-Eleven is 2:22 behind with Excellent Noodles’ British rider Tyler Hannay 2:51 adrift and Go for Gold’s Rench Michael Bondoc down by 2:55.
Anisimov, wearing the symbolic purple jersey for being the winner of the Palayan-Bayombong stage instead of his white and orange colors of his Filipino-owned team based in Dubai, followed eventual third placer Jung Hoon-lee of Seoul Cycling Team before making his move in the final 200 meters to barely beat Tugawin amid a noontime temperature of 36 degrees and a heat index of 42 degrees.
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