Kaswanto forced to abandon Philippines cycling road race
Kaswanto forced to abandon Philippines cycling road race
ANTIPOLO, Philippines (Agencies): Kaswanto completed Indonesia's poor performance in the Marlboro Centennial Tour of Philippines when he abandoned the fifth stage of the race yesterday.
With Kaswanto, the only remaining rider from the six-man Indonesian squad, quitting, the country saw its hopes of improving its feat vanish. It finished fifth overall last year.
Indonesian ace rider Tonton Susanto withdrew earlier in Friday's second stage, followed by Suyitno, Mohammad Ali Kaprawi and Andi Sistiawan in Sunday's third stage and Djatmiko on Monday.
Host riders stepped up their charges yesterday as national Philippine team captain Victor Espiritu became the first double stage winner even as his teammate Warren Davadilla easily retained his overall lead.
Espiritu, the 1996 champion, floated with the star-studded 10- man lead pack for most of the 137.7 kilometer stage from Calamba, Laguna before taking command in the last five kilometers of the third and final climb to this mountain resort.
He clocked three hours, 28 minutes and 13 seconds to win his second stage, although he remained 29mins and 27secs off yellow jersey holder Davadilla.
Tiny Davadilla was a marked man for the day after his stage victory Monday but he showed enough strength to finish with the six-man sixth group, only 3:22 behind his skipper.
That allowed Davadilla to even increase his overall lead over teammate Arnel Quirimit to 5:44 and 5:56 over Malaysia's Hoong Tsen Seong and rookie Santy Barnachesa of Pangasinan.
With his win, Espiritu boosted the Philippines ahead by 17:50 over Pangasinan in the team general classification and Malaysia held on to third place, 28:42 behind from 25:07.
Espiritu gained more distance from the feared Wong Kam-po of Hong Kong, the defending champion who was in the original 10-man lead pack until a flat tire in the last 25 kilometers, defused his drive.
Wong finished with the nine-man seventh group and found himself behind Espiritu by 5:02.
Overall standings
1. Warren Davadilla (Phi) 21hrs 40mins 16secs 2. Arnel Quirimit (Phi) 21:46.00 3. Hoong Tsen Seong (Mas) 21:46.12 4. Santy Barnachea (Phi) 21:46.12 5. Gonzalo Espiritu (Phi) 21:48.43 6. Carlonlu Guleb (Phi) 21:53.41 7. Placido Valdez (Phi) 21:58.01 8. Enrique Domingo (Phi) 21:58.59 9. Norberto Oconer (Phi) 21:59.58 10. Frederico Cruz (Phi) 22:02.02