Back-to-Back for Ean

CLARK, Pampanga, Philippines — Ean Cajucom is riding his bike as if flying rocket ship in the outer space of his astronaut dreams.

The 22-year-old Victoria Cycling’s fast-rising star is conquering the MPTC Tour of Luzon: Great Revival as if it’s his universe, claiming a second stage victory in the windy, rolling 168.76-kilometer Stage Four that started in Agoo, La Union and ended here yesterday.

“If I had become an astronaut, I wouldn’t have won here,” said Cajucom, who, for the second straight day, emerged victorious in a frantic mass finish.

Mervin Corpuz of MPT Drivehub, nephew of former Tour champion Santy Barnachea who happens to be their team director, took second while Aidan James Mendoza of Go for Gold was third with identical clockings of three hours, 32 minutes and 45 seconds.

Part of the 101-rider peloton was South Korean Joo Dae Young of Gapyeong Cycling Team, who will continue to wear the yellow or leader’s jersey in today’s hilly 160.6km Stage Five that will start here, make a U-turn in New Clark City in Capas, Tarlac then back to Clark.

It was another spectacular effort for Cajucom, younger brother of Tour veteran John Mark Camingao, on the heels of his Vigan-San Juan Stage Four triumph the day before.

Cajucom credited his supernova performance to Victoria’s European training and races last year.

“Our European training really helped. We were given a great training program as well as proper nutrition, it was really a big factor for us,”  he said after receiving heaps of praises from their team director and former Tour king Joshua Cariño.

With the Tour on its halfway mark, Joo was still on top in the 1,074km, eight-stage race with a total clocking of 10:37:12 while Standard Insurance’s Ronald Oranza remained at No. 2, four minutes and a half behind.

Rounding out the top 10 in the overall general classification race were Mendoza (10:41:48), Exodus Army’s Dominic Perez (10:41:55), Corpuz (10:41:56), Standard’s George Oconer (10:41:58), MPTD’s Rustom Lim (10:42:06), Standard’s Jan Paul Morales (10:42:33), Malaysia’s Mohammad Faiz Fakhri (10:42:39) and MPTD’s Junreck Carcueva (10:42:40).

With his second top podium finish, Cajucom zoomed to 12th with a total time of 10:42:45 from 32nd the day before.

In the team race, Standard Insurance still led the way with an overall aggregate of 42:49:24, 19 seconds ahead of MPT Drivehub in 42:49:43.

Completing the team top 10 were Exodus Army (42:50:37), Go for Gold (42:50:38), Malaysia Pro Cycling (42:51:01), 7-Eleven Cliqq Roadbike Philippines (42:51:11), DReyna Orion Cement (42:51:42), Bryton Racing Team (42:52:38), Dandex T-Prime (42:52:44) and Victoria Sports (42:52:49).

But the Navy Men received bad news when Junrey Navarra, their best climber, was ruled out for the rest of the way due to an ankle sprain he sustained in a 14-man spill in Stage Three.