1 day ago
5
Upgrade to High-Speed Internet for only ₱1499/month!
Enjoy up to 100 Mbps fiber broadband, perfect for browsing, streaming, and gaming.
Visit Suniway.ph to learn
Joey Villar - The Philippine Star
May 1, 2025 | 12:00am
But here comes Baguio
LABRADOR, Pangasinan, Philippines — South Korean Joo Dae Young displayed his power and prowess in a race against the clock yesterday, and will remain as everyone’s target, still wearing the yellow jersey in the keenly awaited Baguio climb closing stage of the MPTC Tour of Luzon: Great Revival today.
Joo finished second to Joseph Javiniar of Excellent Noodles in the short 15.2-kilometer Stage Seven individual time trial, a good warmup for today’s treacherous 177.54km ride from Lingayen to the dreaded Benguet mountain passes.
After seven relatively flat stages, everything will now boil down to this one final stage that could make or unmake Tour dreams.
“Today (yesterday), I’m getting more time. Tomorrow (today), I don’t think so,” said Joo, bracing for war going up to Baguio via Kennon.
With his runner-up finish in the ITT race, Joo now owns a total aggregate time of 17:59:37, two minutes and 10 seconds ahead of closest pursuer Mervin Corpuz of Metro Pacific Tollways Drivehub (18:01:47).
Victoria Sports’ Nichol Pajera (18:02:42) jumped from seventh to third after ending up fourth in Stage Seven while Standard Insurance’s Jan Paul Morales (18:02:46) and Jeremy Lizardo (18:02:51), MPTD’s Jonel Carcueva (18:03:13), Go for Gold’s Jerico Jay Lucero (18:03:40), Exodus Army’s Mar Francis Sudario (18:03:57), 7-Eleven’s Rench Michael Bondoc (18:03:57) and Standard’s Ronald Oranza (18:04:35) rounded out the top 10.
Javiniar clocked an impressive 17:25 in taking a second stage top honors in front of the Labrador municipal hall. Joo came in second at 18:03 then Corpuz third in 18:17.
Even with his lead of over two minutes in the overall individual championship, Joo couldn’t rest easy.
A big concern is having to defend his lead with a lone remaining teammate in Jang Jun Hyeok as the rest fell one after the other due to various reasons.
“My team is just two, me and one person. But we’ll keep going,” he said.
Corpuz, a 27-year-old nephew of multi-awarded Santy Barnachea, for his part, said he’s ready to take on the challenge.
“I’m 100-percent ready,” he said.
But don’t mistake Stage Eight as just a Joo-Corpuz duel as practically everybody trailing by mere 10 minutes or less have a legitimate shot at claiming the one crown all cyclists crave – the Tour title.
“It’s still anybody’s race,” said Commissaire1 Jun Lomibao.
That’s the reason Barnachea, MPTD’s director who’s winner of two Tour crowns and two Ronda titles, gave Corpuz and his team one marching order – attack in the start of the ascent.
“I just told the boys to make the move and attack at will when they see the mountains,” he said.
Like the individual race, the team race is far from settled as Standard Insurance continued to cling at No. 1 with a 71:01:14, or just 32 ticks ahead of MPTD (71:01:46).
