i TV Pinoy

Source: gmanews.tv

-- Road Bike Philippines-Seven Eleven rider Victor Espiritu finished only 42nd in a field of 72 riders that included lap winner Fatillah Abdullah of Arayan Indonesia but moved up a notch in the overall individual classification after the second stage of the Tour de Indonesia 2009.

From 38th place after the first stage, Espiritu climbed to 37th place, a minute and 42 seconds behind Mehdi Sohrabi of Iran, who finished second to Fatillah in the lap to remain on top of the overall standings.

Fatillah, who stole the limelight from the much favored Tabriz Petrochemical Team rider in the final 10 meters, clocked two hours, 41 minutes and 47 second, the same clocking given to 71 more riders who reached the finish in one big group.

Bunched with the Indon rider and Sohrabi were third placer Sedey Kudentsov of the Poligon Sweet Nice Team from Russia and Cris Joven of the LPGMA Cycling Team, the best Filipino finisher at 32nd.

Also given the same time clocking were LPGMA’s Ronel Hualda (36th), Espiritu (42nd), Merculio Ramos of LPGMA (43rd), Irish Valenzuela of LPGMA (46th), and Sherwin Diamsay (47th) and Tomas Martinez of RBP (72nd).

But unlike Espiritu, Martinez dropped to 39th place overall from 37th while Diamsay went down from 37th to 38th.

The only consolation for the two Filipino squads competing in the 11-day race was they that were able to maintain their spot in the overall team classification with Road Bike Philippines at ninth and LPGMA 14th in a field of 19 teams.

Road Bike is trailing team classification leader Tabriz Petrochemical Team of Iran by one minute and 34 seconds while LPGM is adrift by one minute and 51 seconds.