Korean Joo Dae Yeong nearly faded in the eighth and final stage but pedaled his way back to top in the final 10 kilometers of the Lingayen to Baguio race and hoist the over-title of the revived MPTC Tour of Luzon 2025.
Suffering a flat tire enroute to the long busting Kennon Road, the Gapyoeng Cycling Team’s top rider did not lose hope but rather mustered all his strength and regain any lost ground and win one of the closest road bike contest in the country.
Although Yeong finished 22nd in final stage and five minutes behind eventual stage winner and Eagle of the Mountain winner Joshua Pascual, it was enough to capture the overall individual title, with an accumulated time of 22 hours, 21 minutes and eight seconds after eight stages which kicked off in Paoay, Ilocos Norte and passed by Ilocos Sur, La Union, Tarlac, Pampanga, Pangasinan, Benguet and ended at Camp John Hay.
Pascual came out of nowhere and surprised the pack where he took home the lap victory with a time of 4:16:14.
Standard Insurance’s Jan Paul Morales finished second in the final stage but his lap time of 4:18:34 was not enough to steal the over-all individual general classification, putting him six seconds behind Joo.
Completing the overall Top 10 were third placer Jonel Carcueva of MPT Drivehub (22:22:00), Victoria Sports’ Nichol Pareja (22:22:02), Standard Insurance’s Jeremy Lizardo (22:23:40), 7-eleven Roadbike’s Rench Michael Bondoc (22:24:15), Go for Gold’s James Paul Escumbien (22:24:42) and Jerico Lucero (22:24:50), Standard Insurance’s Ronald Oranza (22:24:53) and MPT Drivehub’s Rustom Lim (22:25:50).
Meanwhile, MPT Drivehub grabbed the team general classification with 88:22:02 to go home with the P1 million cash purse, with Standard Insurance placing second after registering 11 seconds slower. Roderick Osis
