SORSOGON CITY – Great Britain’s Daniel Whitehouse of the Terengganu Cycling Team showed his mountain-climbing skills in topping Stage One of the Le Tour de Filipinas yesterday here.
Whitehouse clocked three hours, 56 minutes and three seconds to win the race. He broke free from the lead pack during a 5-kilometer (Category1) King of the Mountain battle – more than halfway through the 164.50km race.
“I don’t have much of a sprint, so my only choice is to go,” said the 22-year-old Whitehouse, who finished 15th overall in last year’s Le Tour. “There was one climb on the course, so it was kind of all or nothing.”
“We’ll take it one game at a time. The team (Terengganu) is very, very good,” said the 22-year-old Whitehouse, who aside from taking the ‘polka dot’ jersey for ruling the KOM, he also claimed the ‘green’ jersey during the stage’s sprint in the event presented by Air21.
The cyclists traversed an up and down rode with ease as organizers – with the support of Legazpi and Sorsogon city officials – halted traffic.
Australia’s Benjamin Hil of Taiwan’s Attaque Team Gusto came in second – one minute and 57 seconds behind Whitehouse.
Third was Japanese Suzuki Ryu of team Bridgestone Anchor who was two minutes behind.
Tied from fouth to 10th place 2:04 behind were Spain’s Salvador Guardiola, Australia’s Jai Crawford and 2015 champion Thomas Lebas of Kinan of Kinan Cycling, Japan’s Eiichi Hirai and Australia’s Earle Nathan of Team Ukyo, Spain’s Edgar Neto of 7-Eleven RBP and Spain’s Fernando Grijalba of Kuwait Cartucho Es.
The best Filipino finisher was 2014 winner Mark Galedo of the 7-Eleven team who checked in 9:25 behind the leader.
He remained confident of his chances.
“We’re not able to implement our strategy,” said Galedo. “But it’s too early, we have three more races to go.”
Whitehouse was at the lead pack of 11 riders that included the veteran Lebas and Galedo that bolted away from the peloton after the first 28km of the race sanctioned by the International Cycling Union (UCI).
Halfway through the race, however, Attaque’s Guy Kalma from New Zealand took the lead at the Bulusan coastline, and was still ahead at the Bulusan Park area – or entering the KOM.