Tour 2010: Foreign bets keep Pinoy riders at bay

Day One of Le Tour de Filipinas 2010 belonged to 6-foot-5 Irish David McCann, who pedaled his way trouble free to victory. On Sunday’s second stage, a South African took lap honors. Pieter Seyffert of Team DCM topped the sprint stage of the race, which finished at the Rajah Sulaiman Park on Roxas Boulevard, to beat Team Shimano’s Junpel Murakami and Filipino Arnel Quirimit of Team Air21 in a mad dash to the finish. “It was a short race, but it was tough in the sprint finish," said the 23-year-old Seyffert, who finished the 60.5-kilometer distance in one hour, 12 minutes and 12 seconds, the same time posted by Murakami and Quirimit. But the South African rider upstaged Murakami and Quirimit in a down-the-wire finish. Seyffert won by a wheel over his Japanese rival and by a bike over the former Tour Pilipinas champion in this stage. “It boiled down to who’s the best in the sprint," said the 2003 Tour Pilipinas champion, who emerged as the best Filipino finisher in the race that covered the length from Roxas Boulevard, Macapagal Avenue and EDSA along Manila and Pasay City. David McCann of Giant Asia Riding Team, who ruled the opening stage, continued to cling on to the yellow jersey as he had the best aggregated time after two stages with 4:51:01, a 2:34 lead against second-running Filipino Lloyd Lucien Reynante (7-Eleven) and 2:36 over Baler Ravina (Team Pilipinas-Batang Tagaytay). The third stage of this event — a 146.60-k route that begins at the Quezon Memorial Circle and ends at the Boardwalk inside Subic — kicks off at 9 a.m. on Monday. Rounding off the Top 10 in the overall individual standings are American Vinyl's team captain Irish Valenzuela (4:55:15 behind); Joel Calderon (Smart, 4:56:12); Cris Joven (American Vinyl, 4:56:12); Oscar Rendole (Smart, 4:56:23); South African Jaques Janse Van Rensburg (DCM, 4:57:26); Ferdinand Pablo (American Vinyl, 4:58:02) and German Sascha Damrow (CCN Sportwear-Colossi, 4:58:04). American Vinyl kept the general team classification lead with a 1:58 advantage over Smart, 8:16 lead over 7-Eleven, 14:52 ahead of Team Pilipinas-Batang Tagaytay and 19:49 advantage over Extra Joss. – GMANews.TV