Russian storms into Tour lead

PALAYAN, Nueva Ecija, Philippines —  From Russia with love.

Showing his opening day brilliance was no fluke, Russian Nikita Shulchenko wrested the overall individual lead from LCW UAE teammate Yousef Ibrahiem Alrefai with another strong effort in Stage Three of the MPTC Tour of Luzon starting at the New Clark City in Capas, Tarlac and ending here yesterday.

The 26-year-old Shulchenko was with the seven-man lead pack but wound up fourth in the 140.1-kilometer lap ruled by Dave Montemayor of Go for Gold with identical clocking of three hours, 23 minutes and nine seconds.

Montemayor, a 24-year-old Meycauayan native and former mountain biker who shifted to road race seven years ago, took lap honors in winning a mad dash to the finish for his breakthrough stage triumph.

Another Go for Gold bet in Mark Ryan Lago wound up second while Excellent Noodles’ Sumiso Basalan checked in third.

Also in that pack were Seoul’s Cha A Seom, 7-Eleven Roadbike Philippines’ Antoine Huby and Standard Insurance’s Dave Eeron Cangayao.

The effort catapulted Shulchenko from second to first in the general classification race with an aggregate time of 6:59:38, 49 seconds ahead of Stage One winner Alrefai.

The 19-year-old Syrian appeared headed to keeping his grip of the lead but crashed in the ascent in Laur town after getting rear-ended by 7-Eleven’s support car and sustained bruises.

But he got up, returned to the race and caught up with the 23-rider peloton that checked in 53 seconds behind the first group.

“I was with Nikita (Shulchenko) in the top group in the last climb and I got hit and I couldn’t brake and crashed,” said Alrefai. “But I still felt good that I caught up with them (peloton) in the last two kilometers.”

Despite the mishap, Alrefai said he’s still happy and he and Shulchenko were in the top two.

“I think I’m still in position for the yellow jersey, being in second place and Nikita at first. I think we still did well today (yesterday),” he said.

While the Russian was the man of the hour, Montemayor was the biggest gainer as he leapfrogged from No. 17 and straight to third, 2.04 minutes off the pace.

Rounding out the top 10 were Basalan (7:01:47), 7-Eleven’s Mervin Corpuz (7:01:53), Huby (7:01:54), Cangayao (7:01:54), 7-Eleven’s Ronilan Quita (7:02:04), Excellent Noodles’ Douglas Tyler Hannay (7:02:29) and Go for Gold’s Rench Michael Bondoc (7:02:33).

In the overall team race, Go for Gold remained at the helm with an aggregate time of 29:07:00, 11 seconds ahead of 7-Eleven and 45 ticks up over Excellent Noodles.

The bull-strong Russian vowed to do his best in trying to hold on to No. 1 in today’s 168.4 km Stage Four from here to Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya. This 14-stage race is presented by the Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. and backed by the Manny V. Pangilinan group of companies and the Philippine Sports Commission.