By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
CERVANTES, Ilocos Sur – French rider Antoine Huby conquered the mountainous Stage 10 of the Tour of Luzon, while Russian Nikita Shulchenko tightened his grip on the yellow jersey on Saturday, May 9, from Candon City to the summit finish at the Bessang Pass Natural Monument here.
Coming from the peloton, the 25-year-old 7-Eleven rider latched onto a six-man breakaway in the final 10 kilometers entering Cervantes and overcame a light front-wheel problem before gradually pulling away on the uphill climb en route to the stage victory.
After crossing the finish line in 3 hours, 32 minutes and 1 second, he collapsed to the ground in exhaustion following the brutal 124.2-kilometer stage that featured two grueling ascents – a five-kilometer climb in Carangalan and the Hors Categorie ascent of Bessang Pass that stretched 30 kilometers to the finish.
“It was really important for me to prove to my teammates that I’m a good climber. Today is an important day. It’s a good stage win for me, a good climb and a really nice finish,” said Huby, a national junior and U23 champion in France who also rides for UCI WorldTeam Soudal-Quick-Step.
Shulchenko, who made his move after the punishing ascent along Bessang Pass shattered both the breakaway group and the peloton, checked in 50 seconds later for second while 7-Eleven’s Ronnilan Quita, who was part of the six-rider group chasing Huby and Shulchenko in the last 2.5 kilometers, finished 2:26 minutes behind for third.
“It was really a hard climb because it’s really long, but then we were able to close in the breakaway. I did my best but at around two kilometers from the finish I dropped from Huby,” said Shulchenko, whose cumulative time of 29:34:44 puts him 3:44 minutes ahead of closest pursuer and LCW UAE teammate Yousef Ibraheim Alrefai in the general classification.
Huby’s stage win, for his part, chopped 54 seconds off his deficit to Shulchenko, propelling him to third overall at 3:56 minutes off the pace. Quita slipped to fourth at 5:57 back, while Malaysian National Team’s Muhammad Syawal Mazlin trailed by 8:36.
The strong performances of Huby and Quita also lifted 7-Eleven from third to the top of the team race with a cumulative time of 111:37:57. Go for Gold dropped to second, 5:28 behind, while LCW UAE — powered by Shulchenko, Alrefai and Mikhail Lunin, who spent in a long breakaway around 50 kilometers near Libtong — fell 13:01 off the pace.
