INQUIRER Sports

SAN FERNANDO, La Union - Powered by former mountain bike specialists, Go21 and Cargohaus emerged fastest yesterday in the team time trial serving as Stage 4 of the Padyak Pinoy 2009 Tour of Champions.

Skippered by veteran Bernard Luzon and boasting of 2003 Vietnam Southeast Asian Games cross-country gold medalist Eusebio Quiñones, Go21 topped the 74-km TTT from Dagupan with a time of one hour 39 minutes and 2.581 seconds.

Cargohaus, which has 2007 Manila SEAG cross-country silver medalist Frederick Feliciano as lead rider, finished second, just 2.11 ticks behind.

American Vinyl, led by team captain Lloyd Lucien Reynante, was third, 34.44 seconds off the winning time, as the Tour’s frontrunners took it easy since the TTT did not count in the overall individual race.

Rounding out the order of finish in the stage were Columbia Sportswear (47.10 seconds behind), Tanduay (48.06), Ube Media (51.08), Wow Magic Sing (2:11.70), Mail and More (2:14.05), Smart Buddy (2:33.17), Gin Kapitan (3:08.12), U-Freight (3:32.52), Solarlina (3:56.59), Air2100 (4:00.21), Burger King (5:01.44) and Navray (10:38.38).

Ube Media, the leading squad in the race for the top P500,000 first prize, kept its lead of 6:47.951 intact over American Vinyl. Columbia Sportswear remained third, 19:35.681 behind.

The teams were flagged off at three-minute intervals beginning with the last-placed squad from the previous stage. The time of the third best rider serves as the team’s clocking.

Because the TTT does not count in the individual classification of the Tour presented by Tanduay with Smart and Air2100 as major sponsors, the frontrunners led by Santy Barnachea and Oscar Rindole took it easy.

Aggressive riding, however, will be the order of the day when the Tour resumes this morning with a 132-km drive along smooth roads to Vigan City in Ilocos Sur.