IRISH Valenzuela of Jazy Sports Beacon Philippines showed great cycling form during the longest and one of the toughest stages of the Speedy Tour d’ Indonesia as he finished second in the intermediate sprint and wrested the King of the Mountain title on Wednesday.

This arduous fourth leg, won by Japanese national rider Mazakazo Ito, involved a 221-kilometer ride through heavy rains that brought many riders crashing down through the slippery road.

Valenzuela and his Jazy teammates, Arnulfo Quirimit, Merculio Ramos, Ericsson Obosa and Sherwin Carrera, all of them checking in at 5:30.38 trailed Ito by four seconds.

Overall, the Filipinos remained in third place with an aggregate time of46.31.35, following CCC of Indonesia (46:28.31) at second, and the Iranian team Tabriz Petrochemical (46:24.37) in the lead.

On individual standings, Ramos, the only Filipino rider to wear the coveted yellow jersey in the famed Tour of Langkawi of Malaysia, was ranked highest at the 11th spot and Valenzuela, thanks to a 6-second bonus for his KoM plum, moved up to No. 13 overall, as Quirimit slid to 19th place.

The Filipinos escaped virtually unscathed from the punishing fourth stage but other squads from different countries suffered heavy casualties that trimmed down the number of participants to 72 from the initial 85.-LM

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