Quirimit wins 7th stage of Tour of the Philippines
Quirimit wins 7th stage of Tour of the Philippines
SAN JOSE CITY, Philippines (Agencies): Arnel Quirimit of the
Philippines national team led the way home for breakaway partner
Carlo Guieb of Northern Luzon to win the 7th stage and moves just
53 seconds behind general classification leader and teammate
Warren Davadilla in the Marlboro Centennial Tour of the
Philippines '98 yesterday.
The well-built, 24-year-old Quirimit matched the aggressive
riding of former two-time champion Guieb in the two hour category
1 mountain-climbing parts of the stage that splintered the field
and then sprinted across the finish line half-a-wheel ahead with
a time of 5 hours and 16 seconds for the 199.8km drive.
Quirimit, also the winner of the first stage, came close to
stripping the yellow jersey of leadership from Davadilla, who
needed a tremendous rally in the last 50 kms to barely stay in
front by finishing 4:41 behind the two-man lead pack.
Davadilla started the day 5:44 ahead of Quirimit.
Malaysian Hoong Tsen Seong and Pangasinan rookie Santy
Barnachea continued to share third overall position, just 5:20
behind, but Gonzalo Espiritu, the Pangasinan team captain,
advanced to within 7:51 and Guieb gained almost 5 minutes as he
held sixth place, 9:06 off Davadilla.
While Guieb recalled the old form that gave him the 1993 and
1994 overall titles as he conquered the two King of the Mountain
runs, defending champion Wong Kam Po of Hong Kong, Tang Xuezhong
of China and Philippine team captain Victor Espiritu provided the
day's most dramatic moment as they came from deep down in the
field to finish together in the second group, just 2:18 behind
the two-man lead pack.
Proving a strong team the three made good group and are now
all beginning to show their top-class capabilities.
Tang went on to win the three-man dash for third place with
Wong placing fourth over Espiritu, the first two stage champion,
whose Philippine national team seems focused on victory in the
team general classification.
But the three seemed out of the running in the individual
race, although the hardest part of the schedule still lies ahead
in the three stages finishing in Baguio. Espiritu, the winner in
1996, kept 17th place, 27:04 behind Davadilla. Tang trailed by
28:34 in 18th place and Wong was in 22nd, 32:06 off the overall
leader.
The Philippines national team increased its lead position over
Pangasinan to 22:25 and to 35:01 over Malaysia. Guieb's Northern
Luzon squad advanced to fifth behind Metro Manila while Nueva
Ecija dropped to sixth.
China advanced to seventh followed by Southern Luzon, Central
Luzon, Hong Kong, Japan, Mindanao and Visayas.
Overall standings
1. Warren Davadilla (Phi) 29:41:14
2. Arnel Quirimit (Phi) 29:42:07
3. Hoong Tsen Seong (Mal) 29:46:31
4. Santy Barnachea (Phi) 29:46:31
5. Gonzalo Espiritu (Phi) 29:49:02
6. Carlo Guieb (Phi) 29:50:17
7. Enrique Domingo (Phi) 29:59:19
8. Frederico Cruz (Phi) 30:01:43
9. Placido Valdez (Phi) 30:02:24
10. Bernard Luzon (Phi) 30:03:19