Emami caps mighty Iranian tour sweep

BAGUIO, Philippines – Iranian Rahim Emami flashed his awesome mountain climbing skills to dominate the killer Baguio stage and crown himself the new Le Tour de Filipinas champion before a roaring crowd at Burnham Park yesterday.

Just two seconds ahead of Filipino Ericson Obosa at the start of the fourth and final leg – a 112.50 km trek from Lingayen to here, Emami turned what had appeared to be a wild finish into a cruise, launching his assault in the final ascent on Kennon Road to finish unchallenged in three hours, nine minutes and 53 seconds.

Met with loud cheers from the crowd in this cool, breezy mountaintop city, the Tabriz province native raised both arms as he crossed the finish line unopposed, nailing the overall crown for his biggest victory since joining the Azad team two years ago.

The Iranian sensation had a total aggregate time of 12:15:34 at the close of the four-day Tour presented by KIA with Smart and Air21 as partners and backed by Wow Videoke, American Vinyl, Phoenix Fuel, Maynilad, Cannondale-Mavic, Roadbike Philippines, 7-Eleven, Integrated Waste Management Inc., Shopinas and SignMedia.

“I’m happy to win here,” said Emami through an interpreter. “In Iran, we have tougher mountains to climb and I’ve finished second (in the KoM) in the Tour de Langkawi, which has a more difficult ascent.”

“We knew we’ll have easier time here,” he added.

Truly, the foreign riders overwhelmed the local bets not just in the final stage but also in the overall standings with Emami’s teammates, Farshad Salehian and Amir Zargari completing the all-Iranian podium finish. Great Kenda’s Jai Crawford and Bridgestone/Anchor’s Miyata Shimizu took the next two spots.

Interestingly, the top five finishers in the Baguio finale also wound up in the same order in the overall race with Salehian coming in second in 12:16:27 and Zargari, Crawford and Shimizu ending up third to fifth places in 12:16:27, 12:16:32 and 12:18:39, respectively.

Gracing the awards rites were Tagaytay City Mayor and PhlCycling chief Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino, chairman Bert Lina and organizing Dos1 head Gary Cayton.

Oboso struggled and limped home in 46th place in 3:23:40 and tumbled down to 32nd overall with 12:29:33 clocking.

The country’s top bet, 7-Eleven’s Lloyd Reynante, tried his best but also faded in the face of the strong international challenge. He wound up seventh in the last stage in 3:13:24 behind stage sixth placer Mirsamad Pourseyedi Golakhour, also of Azad, who clocked 3:12:28.

Reynante, 32, ended up sixth overall in 12:19:27 ahead of Great Kenda’s Alex Coutts (12:19:54), 7-Eleven’s Irish Valenzuela (12:20:00), Smart’s Baler Ravina (12:20:02) and Stage Three winner Golakhour (12:20:45) to round up the top 10.

“I gave it my best but they’re just too strong,” said Reynante.

So dominating were the Iranians as they also ran away with the team title, chalking up an impressive clocking of 36:48:01, or a whopping 13.43 minutes ahead of second placer 7-Eleven and a clear 17 minutes of Smart, supported here by Smart Sports chief Patrick Gregorio.

Emami also emerged the sprint king with 22 points while Salehian and Zargari completed a 1-2 finish in the KoM race with 14 and 10 points, respectively.

Obosa consoled himself with a second place finish in the sprint category with 15 points after leading in the first three days while Smart’s Oscar Rendole, who also led going into the last stage, settled for joint fourth with Golakhour with seven points apiece.

Mark John Galedo, also of 7-Eleven, launched the first breakaway just eight kilometers off the starting line in Dagupan, Pangasinan only to be joined later by teammate Sherwin Carrera, American Vinyl’s Joseph Millanes and Smart’s Tomas Martinez in Agoo, La Union.

The four-man lead pack held on for a while but didn’t have enough steam to maintain their pace, enabling the main pack, including Emami and the rest of the Iranians, to join them going into the final 25kms.

Emami, Salehian, Zargari and Golakhour along with Crawford and Shimizu then peeled off from the pack in the final eight kms in Kennon before Emami broke away by his lonesome en route to victory.