Galedo, Navarro banner Pinoy cyclists in Tour de Borneo

MANILA, Philippines - Mark John Lexer Galedo of 7Eleven-Roadbike Phl and Junrey Navarro of LBC-MVP Sports Foundation salvaged some measure of pride for the Phl as the two finished 10th and 14th overall in a field of 96 at the conclusion of the five-stage Tour de Borneo in Sabah, Malaysia Thursday.

Galedo and Navarra, the second edition champion and third edition King of the Mountain of the Ronda Pilipinas, respectively, were with the 30-man group that checked in at eighth with clockings of two hours, 15 minutes and 35 seconds in the Kundasang-Penampang fifth and final stage that was shortened to 98.1 kms.

Mehdi Sohrabi of TPT bested Ruslan Kadimov of Uzbekistan and Joseph Cooper of HGP in a frantic race to the finish to rule the stage although all three podium finishers checked in at 2:14.48.

Galedo thus finished the five-day race with an aggregate time of 17:44.12 while Navarra, a pocket-sized Mindanao native, had 17:47.46 to emerge the best Filipino finishers.

TPT's Ghader Mizbani, who topped the Le Tour in the Phl last summer, reigned supreme in 17:31.09, edging teammate Mirsamad Purseyediholakhor and Cooper, who wound up second and third in 17:31.17 and 17:37.37, respectively.

Mizbani also emerged as the King of the Mountain winner.

Other Filipino finishers were 7Eleven-Roadbike's Boots Ryan Cayubit at No. 17 (17:50.54), Baler Ravina at No. 23 (17:56.08), Marcelo Felipe at No. 25 (17:58.22) and Mark Julius Bordeos at No. 27 (18:00.40) and LBC-MVPSF's Rustom Lim at No. 22 (17:55.24), Ronald Oranza at No. 36 (18:09.41), El Joshua Carino at No. 37 (18:10.57) and Ronald Lomotos at No. 51 (18:20.00).

The Ric Rodriguez-managed 7Eleven-Roadbike ended up fourth overall in the team event with a total time of 53:27.55 behind TPT (52:43.43), HGP (53:00.36) and CCN (53:18.59) while LBC-MVPSF finished seventh in 53:43.53.