Anthony rules 4th lap; Anderson still at helm

CLARK , Philippines  – Jesse Anthony turned out to be the recipient of a cohesive teamwork that Kelly Benefits Strategies displayed to dominate Stage 4 of the 2010 Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers Association (LPGMA) Tour of Luzon.

Yellow jersey holder Ryan Anderson, Guy East, David Veilleux and Anthony stuck together in the last three laps of the 80-kilometer race before the American rider from Beverly, Massachussets sprinted 300 meters to the finish.

Anthony registered one hour, 54 minutes, 34.48 seconds to earn lap honors while Anderson checked in second (6.91) that allowed him to retain the yellow jersey with a total time of five hours, 53 minutes, 39.42 seconds.

Joel Calderon of Smart sneaked into the top 5 of the stage dominated by foreigners after finishing third (11.91) before the group of East, James Perry of EMG, Veilleux and Tagaytay’s Jay Tolentino came with identical clockings (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.

Perry’s finish in the criterium race inside the former US air base cost the South African several seconds in the overall standings. And though Perry is still running second, the gap has widened as he now stood 26.39 seconds behind.

Kelly Benefits’ Veilleux (54.04), East (1:23.22) and Reid Mumford (1:50.72) were also in hot pursuit of the general classification accolade of the nine-day race backed by partylist group LPGMA, prime real estate developer Geo-Estate Beacon, Burlington, Schick, Energizer and Liquigaz, the world’s top LPG producer.

“It could had been any of us in this stage. But the real objective was to protect Ryan’s lead,” said Mumford, skipper of Kelly Benefits, a US-based cycling club.

Liquigaz’s Baler Ravina, who finished eighth (20.23), moved up to sixth overall (2:10) while Irish Valenzuela of American Vinyl (3:00.41) hadn’t moved at all and remained seventh.

Dennis Von Nickalk of EMG (3:00.44), Santi Barnachea of Liquigaz (3:01.09), Geo-Estate Beacon’s Michael Ochoa (3:57.75), Tolentino (4:00.78) and Geo-Estate’s Alfredo Asuncion (4:05.68) also made it to the top 12.

Sherwin Carera of Liquigaz compiled 10 points for the day in sprint but East remained a heavy favorite to win the Burlington Sprint King award with a total of 16 points going into the mountain stages.

After four days competing 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 sprinkled with moderate climbs from Subic to San Jose, Tarlac.

“I’m excited. I love hellish courses with great challenge,” said Anthony. “But I think it’s gonna be harder to defend the yellow jersey.”

The riders will punish themselves with another elevated ride from Subic to Morong, Bataan (130kms) before giving their all in the Subic-Pilar, Bataan-Subic route (130kms) in Stage 7, where the eventual Tour champion is expected to emerge.