INQUIRER Sports

MANILA, Philippines?Veteran Merculio Ramos Jr. led the charge of the Roadbike Phils-711 riders who swept team and individual honors in the 134.5-kilometer third leg of the Tour of Vietnam on Thursday.

After two waterlogged days of racing due to a typhoon, the Filipinos made their presence felt in the nine-stage Tour organized by Vietnam?s biggest television network.

Starting in the seaport city of Danang, Ramos, an Army corporal, staged a breakaway 40 km into the stage, building an eight-minute lead over eight pursuers.

He finished with a time of 2 hours, 54 minutes and 17 seconds, beating Vietnam?s Nguyen Nam Quc and third-placer Wim Spijkerboer of the Netherlands.

The RP-711 squad, also made up of Lloyd Lucien Reynante, Mark Guevarra, Rhome Antonio and Nikko Cortez, topped the stage?s team classification (8:44.21), followed by BTV Saigon (8:44.21) and ADC.THVL (8:44.24).

Reynante remained the best-placed Filipino at 24th overall with a total time of 6:22.42.01. Guevarra lay two rungs lower at 26th.