Ailing Tonton out of RP cycling Tour

CEBU CITY, The Philippines (Agencies): Indonesian ace cyclist Tonton Susanto withdrew in the Marlboro Centennial Tour of the Philippines yesterday, handing a big blow to his team's title hopes in the race.

Tonton, who finished fifth overall last year, had apparently failed to recover after fighting heatstroke in Thursday's opening stage in which he came 11th.

He quit on the verge of collapsing yesterday, 19 kilometers into the race.

With 16 stages to go, inexperienced Andi Sistiawan is the biggest hope of keeping Indonesia's remote chances alive. Andi joined a group of 13 riders who clocked three hours, nine minutes and 15 seconds covering a distance of 133.90 kilometers yesterday.

The Malaysian team impressed the field on the third day of the race, with young first-timer Mohammad Mahazir Hamad winning the stage to make up a couple of third-place finishes. The 21-year- old track specialist showed the way home for the five-man lead pack at the end of the speed run from here to Argao and back in a time of 3:06:38

Hamad relegated home favorite Warren Davadilla to second place for the second straight day.

But the tiny Filipino found great consolation in wrestling the yellow jersey from overnight leader and compatriot Arnei Quirmit. Davadilla goes into today's third stage with a 24-second lead over Gonzalo Espiritu of Pangasinan province, while Quirmit dropped to the third overall at two minutes and 25 seconds behind.

Davadilla's gutsy showing allowed the Philippine national team to remain on top, although the hosts found the Malaysians breathing hard down their necks with Hoon Tsen Seong placing seventh on the day.

Defending champion Wong Kam-po of Hong Kong tried to attack in the early going, but his breakaway bid was foiled by Espiritu. Wong finished with the nine-man 12th group and found himself trailing Davadilla by 12 minutes and 20 seconds.