Tagaytay City—Dutch rider Jeroen Miejers played a waiting game before he made his big move.
And when he did, the 28-year-old bet of the Taiyuan Miogee Cycling team conquered the narrow two-lane roads of Tagaytay City to claim the Stage 1 honors of the Le Tour de Filipinas 2019 cycling competitions here.
Meijers was all alone when he finally got off the steep portion of the 12.1 kilometer, forested Sampaloc road at the border of Talisay and Batangas, and into the 3.6 kilometer part of the Emilio Aguinaldo Highway towards the Praying Hands finish line.
He clocked a time of three hours, eight minutes and 59 seconds when he arrived at the finish line marker at the Maharlika West area.
Meijers was a minute and 39 seconds in front Angus Lyons an Australian rider from Oliver Real Foods.
“I attacked the first group and waited for the climb,” said Meijers, who will now don the purple jersey, which replace the traditional yellow, that used to be worn as the general classification uniform in previous races.
The punishing climb out of Sampaloc took its toll on several riders including national team members Ronald Oranza and defending champion El Joshua Cariño, as well as Go For Gold’s Elmer Navarro, who all missed the cutoff.
This will be the Dutch rider’s second stage win since placing third overall, and taking the Stage 3 win in the recent Tour of Taiyuan.
Team 7-Eleven rider Marcelo Felipe was with an eight-man group who was with Meijers and third place teammate Daniel Habtemichael when they went up the Sampaloc trail.
Habtemichael followed Meijers when he made his move. Lyons did as well but Felipe decided to stay behind.
“Kinapos ako nung kumawala yung teammate ko at isapang teammate ko sa last eight kilometers, at sa kalagitnaan ng ahon,” Felipe said.
Felipe was tied in eighth to 10th places with Sapura Cycling’s Muhsin Misbah and Taiyuan’s Li Shuai.
Cramps while negotiating the Sampaloc trail affected Cariño, who slowed down and submitted a time of 3:35.36.
“Wala. Nag cramps ako sa ahon. Hindi ako makasipa. Ganun talaga,” said Cariño.
Team PGN’s Sandy Nur Hassan settled for fourth behind teammate Aiman Cahyadi at third.
Four riders were injured and are now out of contention from the race.
Meijers was in the middle of a four-man spill that took place in the first five kilometers which involved a NEX rider from Singapore, Panha Suon who dislocated his clavicle during a downhill run.
Meijers then avoided a two-man spill in the 10-km mark, which saw Oliver rider Conor Murtagh hurting his right hip. Murtagh made it halfway through Stage 1 before he called for medical attention.
Bike Xtreme’s Lance Allen Benito was also hurt in one of th spills, along with Nex’s Jerome Teo.
The 194.90-km Stage Two on Saturday from Pagbilao in Quezon to Daet in Camarines Norte will be the longest of the 5-stage series, and this could decide the overall winner.
