German tops 2nd lap; Meijers retains lead
DAET, Camarines Norte – Dutch Jeroen Meijers of Taiyuan Miogee-China retained his hold of the overall individual lead after placing 14th in the 194.9kilometer Stage 2 of the Le Tour de Filipinas won by German Mario Vogt of Team Sapura Cycling of Malaysia.
Vogt, a 27-year-old from Stuttgart, raced to the finish with a clocking of four hours, forty-nine minutes and six seconds in the mad dash with second-placer Kohei Uchima of Team Ukyo-Japan.
Go Choon Huat of Terengganu Inc TSG, also a Malaysian squad, checked in third with a time of 4:49.11 while fourth was Jan Paul Morales of the Philippine national team (4:52.11) and fifth place went to Jamalidin Novardianto of PGN Road Cycling-Indonesia, likewise with the same time.
Meijers, who ruled the 129.5km lap in Tagaytay City on Friday, was 21st but it was enough for him to remain on top of the leaderboard going into the last three stages that will all finish in Legazpi City in Albay.
With his first-place finish in the kickoff phase, Meijers is just 45 seconds ahead of Go with an aggregate time of 7:59.00.
Australian Angus Lyons of Oliver’s Real Food-Australia is third with a collectime time of 8:00.43, while Eritrean Daniel Habtemichael of 7Eleven CliqqAir21 of the host, is fourth with 8:01.13 and fifth is Sandy Nur Hasan of PGN Road with 8:01.25.
The closest Filipino among the leaders is Felipe Marcelo, also of 7Eleven Cliqq-Air21, who has a time of 8:01.36.
Marcelo appears to be the lone hope for the Philippines after the early exit of Roland Oranza and defending champion El Joshua Carino.