PAOAY, Ilocos Norte. — A throng of supporters and local folks braved the oven-like weather and pounded the race’s barricades on both sides of the towering finish line arc.
The loud cheers, in Filipino and some in Ilokano, hit a crescendo and felt like a drum roll as the runaway winner pedaled near the end.
A roaring chant was heard from an elderly man wearing a commemorative tour t-shirt and holding a smartphone ready to take a video of the finish—“Go, Morales!”
Only that the maiden victor wasn’t the crowd favorite and veteran cyclist Jan Paul Morales of Standard Insurance Philippines, but a South Korean who appeared to have barely broken a sweat in his return to the country, his sights firmly trained on winning it all this time.
Dae Yeong Joo of Gapyeong Cycling Team left the pack biting his dust—literally and figuratively—in ruling the opening leg of the Tour of Luzon Thursday here.
Joo, 28, clocked four hours, 12 minutes and 45 seconds over the 190.70-km Stage 1 that began and ended in front of the iconic Paoay Church.
Morales’ teammate, Ronald Oranza, finished second with a time of four minutes and 32 seconds with Go For Gold Cycling Team’s Aidan James Mendoza completing the podium with a 4:40 mark.
“I wanted a solo finish. That was the plan,’’ the lean but mean Joo said. “I also planned to take the sprint points and keep on getting them in succeeding laps.
“I am really happy with the win. Our original plan is really for us to attack it on the first day and I find myself suddenly in front of the race so I took my chance,” he added.
The 68.39-km Stage 2 (team time trial) unfurls Friday from Paoay to the Ilocos Sur capital of Vigan City.
Breaking away from the peloton that also featured a U-turn in Pagudpud, the lap turned into a two-man duel between Joo and Morales halfway through before the visiting rider zoomed in the last 40km near the boundary of Bacarra town and Laoag City.
“Binanatan ako sa last 40km,” was the curt response of Morales, 39, to Joo’s telling attack. The latter wound up sixth in the 2019 edition of the Ronda Pilipinas.
Morales, a Calumpang, Marikina City pride and bemedalled rider, crashed nearly 400m from the end zone that left him with bloody cuts and bruises in his left shin and shoulder, in what became a double whammy as he dropped to 47th in the general classification.
Morales said that Oranza taking second place is not a problem since they belong to the same squad. But with bruised pride and ego, expect the Pinoy bets to redeem themselves or else “The Great Revival” will be remembered as a foreign invasion.
