RI's Tonton outsprinted in Tour of the Philippines

CEBU CITY, Philippines (Agencies): Indonesia's Asian Games hopeful Tonton Susanto got off to a shaky start in the Tour of the Philippines cycling race in the day which saw home riders dominating the 193.5-kilometer first stage yesterday.

Tonton, who was placed ninth in Wednesday's prologue, showed his mettle by clocking five hours, six minutes and five seconds to finish 11th out of 84 starters.

It was a disappointing opener for the Indonesian team, which is eying to wind up at least third in the annual race. Andi Sistiawan and Mohammad Ali Kaprawi came 63rd and 73rd respectively, while Suyitno, Kaswanto and Djatmiko failed to beat the deadline of 5:58:26.00.

With a two-day time of 5:11:21, Tonton, who finished fifth overall last year, trails overnight leader Arnel Quirimit of the Philippines by 7mins and 29secs going into today's second stage.

Quirimit of the national team turned the opening stage into his own personal show again while powering to an explosive start and repeating his first stage winning performance of last year.

The 23-year-old Quirimit towed Philippine team-mate Warren Davadilla and Malaysian Nor Effandy Rosli home to win the stage with a time of 4:58:42.

It was the fourth straight time that the Philippine Army private from Pozorrubio, Pangasinan has ruled the kick-off stage of the annual Tour, which is dedicated this year to the country+s celebration of 100 years of independence.

Quirimit leads Davadilla by 7secs and 23 seconds over Rosli, a 31-year-old veteran from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. in the provisional standings.

Enrique Domingo finished seventh for the day as the Philippine team forged ahead by 9mins 24secs in the General Team Classification over Malaysia.

The top riders from China, who showed tremendous promise in the Prologue, paced themselves in the face of the stifling heat and unfamiliar road conditions and came home with the other rated cyclists in the 19-man peloton, 15 minutes 16 seconds behind the lead pack.

"We are very pleased with the overall performance of the China team" manager Zhu Jinling said. "We are acclimatizing the team and pacing ourselves. The weather is very hot but the team are really working smoothly together, encouraging each other which is a important element of how we ride."