Double-winner Guevara pedals way to Tour immortality

MANILA, Philippines – John Mark Guevarra carved a feat that many would find difficult to surpass – winning both the overall individual and team titles in the same tour – on Sunday at the end of the 7-day Liquigaz-LPGMA Tour of Luzon. A virtual unknown at the start of the race, Guevarra capped his breakthrough romp joining his Road Bike/7-11 squad in pedaling their way to victory in the tour’s closing 160-meter Burlington Stage 7 held at the Macagapal Highway in Pasay City. Guevarra’s team clocked seven hours, two minutes and 15.156 seconds for the stage win, capping their conquest of the 10-team race that started Monday in Quezon City, went down south to Lucena City and Tagaytay City, returned to the metropolis in Marikina, before heading north to Cabanatuan City and Baguio City. Overall, 7-Eleven clocked 109:23:26.973 for a 52-minute edge over the Baler Ravina-led Team Batang Tagaytay. That No. 1 placing was worth P500,000 for Guevarra and his teammates. Rounding out the team overall standings were Liquigaz at third (1:00:21.820 behind), American Vinyl fourth (1:34:39.940), GeoState-The Beacon fifth (1:47:20.762), Mobile Wonder-Magic Prints sixth (2:35:12.684), My Photos seventh (2:42:49.192), Newton-Regasco Group eighth (2:42:49.767), DPT Law ninth (3:29:51.541) and Happy Nuts 10th (4:26:24.701). Guevarra had the individual title in the bag as early as Saturday’s “killer" Baguio-to-Baguio stage, but even during Sunday’s final day of the Tour sanctioned by PhilCycling, being champion of the country’s summer sports spectacle still hasn’t sunk in on the 23-year-old painter from Bagong Silang, Caloocan. “Hanggang ngayon hindi pa rin ako makapaniwala. Hindi ko pa rin maipaliwanag ang aking nararamdaman. Basta sobra-sobra talaga yung saya ko kasi nag-champion na ako tapos nakatulong pa rin ako sa team namin para mag-champion," he said. Guevarra received the P50,000 cash prize for besting the 90-rider field. Guevarra’s rise to local cycling fame wasn’t expected this summer. He had to contend with former champions Rhyan Tanguilig, Arnel Quirimit and Warren Davadilla and had to pedal against more illustrious names like Lloyd Lucien Reynante and Merculio Ramos, among others. “Hindi nga maganda ‘yung finish ko nung nakaraang dalawang tour (2006 and 2007 Padyak Pinoy), kaya nga ang goal ko lang bago magsimula ang karera ay makapasok lang sa Top 10 para makasama ako sa national team," he said. But when he topped the Tagaytay-Marikina third stage, Gueverra felt he could go all the way. “Doon ko kasi napatunayan sa sarili ko na kung kaya kong manalo ng stage, kaya ko ring mapanalunan itong buong karera," said Guevarra. However, it was not until the Cabanatuan-Baguio fifth stage where Guevarra made his presence felt loudly. He grabbed the symbolic yellow jersey as overall individual leader from Reynante, before wisely riding along with his closest pursuer all throughout the penultimate Baguio-to-Baguio killer lap to protect his lead. Guevarra outsprinted the likes of veterans Merculio Ramos, Baler Ravina and Reynante to tour immortality. Ramos, the first Asian to wear a yellow jersey in the prestigious Tour de Langkawi, finished second overall, five minutes and 40 seconds behind Guevarra’s aggregate time of 25 hours, 29 minutes and 44 seconds. Hilson Mangahis of Batang Tagaytay finished third with 26:35:56, while Ravina, who ruled the Baguio-to-Baguio stage leapfrogged from 11th to fourth with 26:37:27. Joseph Millanes of Road Bike/7-11 finished fifth (26:37:56), followed by Calderon of DPT Law (26:37:57), Rendole of Geo State/The Beacon (26:38:07), Tomas Martinez of Road Bike/7-11 (26:38:14), erstwhile overall leader Lloyd Reynante of American Vinyl (26:39:40) and Dante Cagas of Road Bike/7-11 (26:41:55). –GMANews.TV