Barnachea a marked man in final lap

LIPA CITY, Batangas–With the team time trial out of the way, all eyes will now be on the guy wearing the yellow jersey.

And Santi Barnachea knows exactly that.

Barnachea, who paced fourth in the previous Tour, will try to ride his way to the bank as he hopes to fend off the pack of chasers in the final lap of the FedEx Express Tour of Calabarzon that will kick off from here and wind up its 168-kilometer stretch in the spruced-up Quirino Grandstand in Manila.

"Mahirap magsuot ng yellow jersey. Ikaw ang babantayan ng ibang siklista," the 25-year-old national team mainstay acknowledged.

Holding a slim 2:07 advantage over Arnel Quirimit, Barnachea, drafted second by Corporate Air-Visayas during the dispersal of national riders, will have to contend with not only a few challenging climbs in the 168-kilometer stretch but also with a lot of riders who know how to negotiate uphill routes.

Barnachea holds an aggregate time of 8:24:01, with Quirimit too close for comfort at 8:26:08. Worse, four other riders representing different teams are in the top ten and could pose a serious threat to the overall leader. Albert Primero, the first cyclist to collect king of the mountain points in this four-day race, lurks at third with a time of 8:30:05.

Primero’s tightly-woven Accel-Nueva Ecija team virtually bagged the top P200,000 purse in the team competition after clocking 6:33:29 in Saturday’s team time trial that run from Lucena City to Lipa City. The squad holds a 27:43:48 total, a whopping 22 minutes ahead of current second placer Darlington-Tarlac.

The second-placer in the team competition will get P150,000 while the third placer in the event will get P100,000.

While Accel-Nueva Ecijha readies its victory ride, and while Barnachea has his eyes locked on the P50,000 top purse in the individual category, at least one person is already feeling victorious going into Sunday’s final lap.

"I am very happy with the success of the Tour of Calabarzon 2002. It goes to show that cycling indeed can rank as one of the country’s top spectator sports. With the way things are going, Airfreight 2100 is underscoring its commitment to support the Tour and ccycling in general," said Bert Lina, chairman of Airfreight 2100, the sole licensee of FedEx in the Philippines, which is bankrolling the race.

The second-placer in the individual category will get P30,000 while the third-placer will receive P25,000.

Among the national team mainstays in the top ten are Airfreight 2100-NCR’s Alfie Catalan (fifth) , PCSO-Bicol’s Emelito Atilano (sixth), Darlington-Tarlac’s Mercullo Ramos (seventh) and Smart-Laguna/Rizal’s Lloy Lucien Reynante (ninth).

Even Petron Diesel Max-Mindanao’s Warren Davadilla, currently at 13th place and 14 minutes and 20 seconds off pace, has a chance at the top prize considering the fact that the final stage consists of uphill climbs in Mabitac, Nagcarlan, Liliw and Antipolo.

Among the personalities at the finish are Toursim secretary Richard Gordon, Manila Mayor Lito Atienza and Games and Amusements Board Eduardo Villanueva. The FedEx Express team in the Philippine Basketball Association will also arrive and sign autographs for fans.

The FedEx cycling group will do a mini-race around the Quirino Grandstand while rapper Andrew E will dish out a few entertainment numbers.