BAGUIO CITY, Philippines – Eastern Pangasinan’s Santy Barnachea made his move in the mountain passes and vaulted from No. 5 to the top of the heap, toppling six-day leader Joel Calderon in a rain-drenched Stage 9 of the LBC Ronda Pilipinas from Vigan to this foggy, mountain-top city yesterday.
Unfancied Tomas Martinez of Tarlac took the lap honors but Barnachea grabbed the coveted red jersey with a strong fourth place finish in the 181.4km stage that had Calderon fading out in the very same race he dominated in winning the 2009 Tour.
“I can smell victory now,” said Barnachea, who held the overall lead after Stage Two but relinquished it to Calderon, who took charge in the next six laps.
Barnachea’s superb performance catapulted him from No. 5 to No. 1 with a total time of 30:25:46, moving a step closer to duplicating Antonio Arzala’s three-title romp in 1955, 1956 and 1959.
The 35-year-old Barnachea clocked four hours, 57 minutes, 19.4 seconds, three minutes behind Martinez, who topped the stage in 4:54:31 worth P50,000.
Martinez edged teammate and Moncada, Tarlac native Daniel Asto and Cycleline Extreme-Butuan City’s March McQuinn Aleonar, who turned in times of 4:56:57.5 and 4:57:16.5, respectively.
Barnachea will go into the last three laps, including today’s 46.4 km Agoo, La Union-Baguio Stage 10 via Aspiras Highway, holding a big seven-minute lead over surprise No. 2 Aleonar and over 10 minutes ahead of Calderon.
“I’ll just probably be defensive tomorrow (today),” said Barnachea, who won a four-lap 2002 Tour and eight-lap Padyak Pinoy crown four years later.
The win was also a sweet revenge for Barnachea, who was leading the 2009 Tour majority of the way before Calderon took this same lap en route to a come-from-behind victory.
“I learned from that experience that’s why I gave up the overall lead to rest before I launch my attack and gave up all my energy here,” said Barnachea.
Aleonar, meanwhile, stole the spotlight from the big guns as he jumped from No. 14 to No. 2 with a time of 30:33:00 while Calderon slid from No. 1 to No. 3 with a time of 30:36:11.
Phl Under-23’s George Oconer also tumbled from No. 2 to No. 4 in 30:36:38, ahead of American Vinyl skipper Cris Joven (30:37:40), 7-Eleven captain Lloyd Lucien Reynante (30:37:58), Martinez (30:38:07), Eastern Pangasinan’s Baler Ravina (30:38:12), American Vinyl’s Rudy Roque (30:38:49) and National Capital Region’s Frederick Feliciano (30:39:16).
Irish Valenzuela of 7-Eleven, who was in the Top Three majority of the time, lost steam with a 55th place lap finish and dropped out of the Top 10 to No. 23.
American Vinyl practically ran away with the team title as it pooled an aggregate time of 91:29:19, or a whopping 19.07-minute lead over Tarlac City (91:48:26), which supplanted Nueva Ecija (91:54:00) and 7-Eleven (91:55:00) at No. 2 thanks to the mighty effort of Martinez.
The 12-leg, 20-day event is offering a total cash pot of P7 million with the individual and team champions receiving P1 million apiece courtesy of main sponsor LBC Hari ng Padala and backers Rudy Project, Air Asia.com, Magnolia Purewater, Versa two-way radios and Starlite Ferries, Inc. with The Philippine STAR, C! and AKTV as media partners.