Roadbike Philippines riders sweep 3rd leg of Tour of Vietnam VETERAN Merculio Ramos Jr. led the charge of the Roadbike Phils-711 riders, who swept team and individual
honors in the 134.5-kilometer third leg of the Binh Duong TV Cup Tour of
Vietnam last Thursday. After two waterlogged days of racing due to a typhoon
that struck Vietnam and bogged down the cyclists, the Filipino bets finally made
their presence felt in the nine-stage cycling classic organized by Vietnam 's
biggest television network. Starting at seaport city of Danang , Ramos, an Army
Corporal, staged a daring breakaway in the first intermediate sprint, 40
kilometers into the stage, building an eight-minute lead over eight pursuers.
He struck again at the 90-km. mark before finally pulling away in the last 10
kilometers to take the stage in a time of 2 hours, 54 minutes and 17 seconds,
nosing out Vietnam's Nguyen Nam Quc and Dutchman Wim Spijkerboer, who placed
second and third, respectively. Thanks to Ramos's heroics, the RP-711 squad ,
likewise composed of Lloyd Lucien Reynante, Mark Guevarra, Rhome Antonio and
Nikko Cortez, also ruled the team classification (8:44.21), followed by BTV
Saigon (8:44.21) and ADC .THVL (8:44.24). On the other hand, Reynante remained
the best-placed Filipino in the international bikefest at 24th overall with an
aggregate time of 6:22.42.01, Guevarra, the 2009 Tour of Luzon champion, was two
rungs lower at 26th while Antonio was at 37th place. Ramos, who dedicated his
stage win to outgoing Armed Force chief, Gen. Victor Ibrado, was also in the
hunt in the points classification standing with 26 points after three stops, 11
points behind Vietnamese frontrunner Do Tuan Ah of team DDT. Yesterday's fourth
stage was a 179-km. taking off from Qung Ngai province to Quinhon City further
south of Ho Chi Minh City, which was formerly known as Saigon.
