LUCENA CITY — Australian Jai Crawford of the Kinan Cycling Team capitalized on an early gamble and beat three-day leader Daniel Whitehouse for the Le Tour de Filipinas crown that ended yesterday here.
Crawford erased his two-minute gap over Whitehouse, the British rider of the Terengganu team who held the yellow jersey since his victory in the first lap in Sorsogon, by joining the six-man lead group, 10 kilometers into the 207.35-km race that began in Daet, Camarines Norte.
He was still part of the lead pack reduced to five riders when they trek the 30-km difficult zigzag in Atimonan before sprinting downhill at the famed Tatlong Eme on his way to topping the eighth edition of the annual race sanctioned by the International Cycling Union (UCI).
The blue-eyed 33-year-old cyclist from Tasmania finished fifth in the fourth-and-final stage won by Korean Sanghong Park, but it his aggregate time of 17 hours, 33 minutes and seven seconds was enough to seal the title.
Whitehouse, who was the 14th rider to cross the finish line in the final stage, placed second overall – 28 seconds behind.
Crawford later praised his teammates, which includes 2015 winner Thomas Lebas of France, for pulling off his third win in a UCI-sanctioned race.
“I’m really happy for my team to start the year with a win,” said Crawford. “I really like to get a chance again. It’s very difficult. My tactic was to put pressure on the yellow jersey and he must chase. That was the goal (to win the yellow jersey).”
7-Eleven-Sava RBP’s thirty-year-old Spanish rider Edgar Nieto, who has lived in the country the last four years with his Filipina wife and child, actually had the best chance of winning the title since he was only 37 seconds off Whitehouse.
Nieto was part of the lead pack with Crawford but extreme heat and exhaustion in the final 10-km caught up with him.
“I tried to follow (the lead pack), I tried to survive,” said Nieto, who settled for sixth overall, 1:02 behind Crawford. “But I was totally empty… I don’t have power. I did it 100 percent to win the race for my team, for Philippines. But it’s cycling, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.”
“Today could have been the best day of my life. I don’t care (to finish in seventh)… just want to win. We had a good gap, only 37 seconds behind. But in the last 10 (km) I was in crisis, no power and hungry and I can’t follow the group,” added a disappointed Nieto.