Nikita Shulchenco of LCW UAECycling Team in motion in the course of the Tour of Luzon. –HANDOUT PHOTO
LINGAYEN, Pangasinan—Barring a large disaster, Nikita Shulchenko has the MPTC Tour of Luzon title within the bag.
The Russian rider finished second in the person time trial on Tuesday, the summer cycling spectacle’s penultimate stage, and built a four-minute cushion against French cyclist Antoine Huby
“It’s great for me,” said Shulchenko after crossing the finish in 26 minutes and one second amid the scorching heat and windy conditions at Lingayen Baywalk. South Korean ace Min Kyeong-ho beat him by 22 seconds.
Shulchenko crossed the finish in 26 minutes and one second amid the scorching heat and windy conditions at Lingayen Baywalk.
Min ruled the race-against-time format, but that meant little to the LCW UAE Cycle top rider, who built himself a buffer heading into the killer final stage from here to Baguio via Kennon Road, which can feature a climb that’s more suitable to Huby’s talents.
Biggest threat
Huby was tagged as a possible challenger for Shulchenko, with mountain stages affording several opportunities to eat up time deficits, but he couldn’t keep pace in the course of the time trial, ending at 27:21—1:42 behind Min and 1:20 slower than Shulchenko.
Shulchenko now has an aggregate time of 36:42:22, ahead of the 7-Eleven Roadbike Philippines ace by 3:50.
Huby emerged as the largest threat to Shulchenko’s hold on the yellow jersey when he conquered the difficult climb towards Daang Kalikasan in Mangatarem the day before today to maneuver inside 2:30 of the Russian.
But a poor finish within the time trial by Huby turned Wednesday’s final stage right into a virtual coronation lap for Shulchenko and never the “Battle Royale” that 7-Eleven team manager Ric Rodriguez billed it to be in the course of the Tour’s rest day in Pagudpud last week.
Huby had beaten Shulchenko within the tough climbs, including the unforgiving Stage 10 at Bessang Pass in Cervantes, Ilocos Sur, which could have made the ultimate stage more dramatic had the 25-year-old slashed the deficit much more and even just kept pace.
“It’s a pleasant gap for me, but there’s no reason for me to chill out,” Shulchenko said.
The Russian rider has donned the symbolic jersey since Stage 3, and can look to secure the P1 million top prize for the perfect individual rider of the Tour—which might make a fitting early birthday present.
Shulchenko will turn 27 on May 31.
His LCW teammate, Ibrahiem Alrefai, is third in the overall classification (5:37 behind), while MPT DriveHub’s Nash Lim moved into fourth (8:05 behind) and is now the perfect Filipino rider.
Fan favorite Mervin Corpuz of 7-Eleven is fifth (+8:54), with Malaysia national team’s Muhammad Mazlin (+9:26) in sixth and 7-Eleven’s Ronnilan Quita (+9:46) seventh.
Rounding out the highest 10 are MPT’s Rustom Lim (+12:19), Seoul’s Jung Woo-ho (+13:30) and Go for Gold Philippines’ Rench Michael Bondoc (+13:54).