Tour of Luzon still a foreign show

CLARK— US-based cycling club Kelly Benefits Strategies displayed cohesive teamwork Tuesday to dominate Stage 4 of the 2010 LPGMA Tour of Luzon International held at the former American air base in Angeles City. Jesse Anthony was the beneficiary of the said teamwork as he captured the lap honors of the 80-kilometer massed start criterium race. Anthony was with yellow jersey holder Ryan Anderson, Guy East and David Veilleux in the last three laps before the American rider from Beverly, Massachusetts, sprinted 300 meters to the finish.

He clocked one hour, 54 minutes and 34.48 seconds, while Anderson checked in second (6.91) that allowed him to retain the yellow jersey with a total time of five hours, 53 minutes and 39.42 seconds. Smart team captain Joel Calderon managed to sneak into the top 5 of the stage dominated by foreigners after finishing third (11.91) ahead of the group of East, James Perry of EMG, Veilleux and Jay Tolentino of Team Batang Tagaytay who came with identical clockings of 16.91. “Everybody in our team got really involved. We got really aggressive out there and had a couple of breakaways,'' said the 22-year-old Anthony, the 2009 Tour of Taiwan King of the Mountain. Finishing fifth in the lap cost the South African James Perry several seconds in the overall standings. Although he remains in second spot, Perry now trails Anderson by 26.39 seconds. Veilleux (54.04), East (1:23.22) and Reid Mumford (1:50.72) are also in hot pursuit of the general classification accolade in the nine-day race. “It could have been any of us in this stage. But the real objective was to protect Ryan's [Anderson] lead,'' said Mumford, skipper of Kelly Benefits. Baler Ravina of Liquigas, who finished eighth (20.23), moved up to sixth overall (2:10) while Irish Valenzuela, team captain of American Vinyl (3:00.41), kept his place at seventh. Dennis Von Nickalk of EMG (3:00.44), Santi Barnachea of Liquigaz (3:01.09) and Geo-Estate Beacon's skipper Alfredo Asuncion (4:05.68) also made it to the top 10. After the first four stages in a confined space, the 58 surviving riders will now go through a point-to-point massed start race with a distance of approximately 145 kilometers from Subic to San Jose, Tarlac. – GMANews.TV