Road Bike Philippines’ Harvey Sicam won the 134.2-kilometer fourth stage of the Ronda Pilipinas 2013 yesterday here in Cebu.
Sicam, one of the front liners of Road Bike Philippines, crossed the finish line at the Plaza Independencia in three hours, 45 minutes and two seconds to emerge fourth-leg winner.
Yesterday’s race started at Plaza Independencia and brought riders to Toledo City via the South Coastal Road, Talisay City, Naga City and Carcar City.
For the first time in the first four stages, Ryan Tugawin of Team Enrile managed a podium finish as he placed second via a photo finish against Rey Martin of the top contending V-Mobile Smart. Both clocked 3:45.04 but Tugawin won via a review of a photo.
Y101FM Cebu’s Warren Davadilla finished fourth with a time of 3:45.09 while Philippine Navy-Standard Insurance’s Dante Cagas finished fifth.
Despite placing eighth in yesterday’s fourth stage, Santy Barnachea of the Philippine Navy-Standard Insurance remains the overall individual leader with an accumulated time of 13:39.50. Barnachea clocked 3:45.31 yesterday.
Tomas Martinez trails Barnachea with a time of 13:42.15 while Rudy Roque is at third with a time of 13:42.24.
The Philippine Navy-Standard Insurance still leads the overall team standings with a total time of 41:03.21 followed by V-Mobile Smart (41:07.43) and Road Bike Philippines (41:09.45). Cebu’s Y101 FM is at the seventh (41:17.34).
The Lapu-Lapu City Hall will be the starting point for the fifth stage today.
This stage, according to the organizers from LBC, will be one of the toughest since it will traverse the treacherous Transcentral Highway in the mountain barangays of Cebu City and the northern towns of the Province of Cebu.
Meanwhile, a break away group of riders almost got lost yesterday after a techical error in Carcar City.
Rick Rodriguez, the overall race director, said that this happens normally in Ronda Pilipinas because of the lack of marshals along key areas. But they were able to fix the problem.
“What we did is we let the break-away group of riders to halt their race for a moment and we restarted it along the Carcar rotunda. We then deducted their total time they got while they were lost.