ToM: Executive racing at its best

With only four hours to cool down, eat, wash our bikes, change the set-up from road to TT, CC team A, that’s us, rolled off in the TTT as the 6th team to start. The team time trial was a 30km out and back course, with two false flats and a punishing 3km climb to the finish. We had a good rhythm going on in the first half of the race but it was clear that we couldn’t finish with the maximum 9 riders. As for me, I just poured it on the flats and gave way in the final climbed.We finished the course in 52.01 minutes, 18th out of 36th, not bad considering it was our first TT ever. Fitness First, the winning team, clocked 44.54 minutes while the other CC team, CC/HBC, came in second at 45.19 minutes.

The final race on the final day was a 40km individual time trial. The course was rolling and pacing was very important if you want to have a strong finish. As for me, the first half was great even if my minute rider overtook me early on. The second half was a disaster. On the same 3km uphill finish, I was so wasted that I was searching for my “ghost” gear! My time of 1 hour, 14.11 minutes, at 115th, was the most painful cycling experience I ever had and I love it!

The winner, Chris Allison of team Nike Livestrong, was just one of two riders to break the hour mark of 59:48 min!!! The best CC rider was John Gayatin at 19th, some 5min behind Allison.

The Tour of Matabunkay was a race I can’t easily forget. The camaraderie was great and thanks to all of my teammates- RaldyVios, Tata Codina, Brett Harrington, Jong Sepulveda, Kiko Lim, Miguel Flores, SankxOntanillas and Ronnie Adlawan for a great weekend of great racing! Also, thanks to Ome Rodriguez, for if not for his friendly “nagging”, we would have missed such a memorable occasion!

My ToM Impressions

1. I realized now how hard stage racing is. The pain is beyond description but the sense of accomplishment is also beyond description!

2. Go figure: the ToM is a 3-day, 4-stage event. The Tour de France is 3 weeks and 21 stages!!!

3. Executive riders from Luzon are as strong. Strength is basically a juggling act between passion and family. Consider also time management. Or pain management, as Eugene Sanchez loves to say!

4. The race organization of Raul Cuevas was just exceptional, and I mean no disrespect Mark Ylanan and his RECYCLE crew.

5. Race support was the best. Highway patrol, police, tanods, soldiers- all came out to make this race successful.

6. All of the races started on time, and no one complained about it.Despite the torrential rain, the race went on and it went full bore from the gun.

7. The registration fee of PHP4,000.00 is probably be a bit steep for the majority of local cyclists. This does not include the plane fares,transfers, accommodations and meals. And oh, before you start to cringe, remember that the ToM is a race for executives and was never advertized as a race for everyone.

Ocotber 30, 2010 race results: mandaue reclamation crit cat c

1- tata codina, 2- brett harrington, 3- raldy vios, 4- raffy bacaya, 5- nonpy abasola