Tour of Luzon: Excellent Noodles braces for tougher stages

Excellent Noodles Cycling Team in action during the Tour of Luzon Stage 2.

CAPAS, Tarlac—Excellent Noodles believes there’s still plenty to fight for despite taking the lead in the team general classification standings after two stages of the MPTC Tour of Luzon.

A second-place finish in Thursday’s team time trial event that ended at New Clark City here allowed Excellent Noodles to leapfrog into the top spot.

But team skipper Ryan Tugawin said the hardest part of the race has yet to come for Excellent Noodles.

Ryan Tugawin on Excellent Noodles getting the team general classification lead after Stage 2 #TourOfLuzon2026 | @jonasterradoINQ pic.twitter.com/znhaSP7ItH

— INQUIRER Sports (@inquirersports) April 30, 2026

“Marami pang pagbabago (we can expect a lot of changes),” Tugawin said. “It’s still the second stage and we haven’t gone through the difficult laps.”

Excellent Noodles has an accumulated time of 15:31:54 for a 36-second gap over Standard Insurance Philippines, which placed third in the TTT.

Erstwhile leader Go for Gold Philippines fell to third, 44 seconds back.

South Korea’s Seoul Cycling Team won the only TTT of the 14-lap cycling marathon after posting a time of 56:35.

The 43-kilometer TTT started at Parade Grounds in Clark, Pampanga.