Excellent Noodles’ Tugawin wins Stage Eight of MPTC Tour of Luzon

PAOAY, Ilocos Norte — Somewhere in Solano, Nueva Vizcaya a few years ago, a farmer named Ryan Tugawin was plowing fields to earn a living.

Then cycling opened a lot of doors for him.

From planting rice, the 36-year-old Mr. Tugawin is now winning races, including this one in the MPTC Tour of Luzon where he outfoxed younger rivals to claim the Stage 8 victory on Thursday before a roaring crowd beside the iconic Paoay Church.

“I’m happy and blessed to be given this opportunity to race and win a stage,” said the meek Excellent Noodles captain right after leading the team prayer at their designated tent near the finish line.

Mr. Tugawin, one of the oldest riders in this 14-stage race presented by Metro Pacific Tollways Corp., the Manuel V. Pangilinan Group of Companies and the Philippine Sports Commission, showed age wasn’t an issue as he clocked three hours, 16 minutes and 58 seconds in topping the relatively flat 148.4-kilometer (km) stage that started in Pagudpud and ended in Paoay.

He outsprinted in the mad dash to the line with four other foes, including Malaysian National Team’s Ariff Danial Noor Roseidi and Go for Gold’s Marvin Mandac, who checked in second and third with the same time as Mr. Tugawin.

Part of that group also had CCN’s Charles Olsen Ferrer and Metro Pacific Tollways Drive (MPTD) Hub’s Nash Lim.

It was Mr. Tugawin’s third stage win after winning the fourth of a five-stage Tour of Friendship in Thailand two years ago and his first and the sweetest — Stage 8 of the 10^th anniversary race of the defunct Ronda Pilipinas six years ago.

Russian Nikita Shulchenko of LCW UAE stayed unbendable at the helm as he clung to the overall individual lead by sticking with the 57-man peloton that finished eighth in the stage, 16 seconds off the pace.

After grueling stages and with six more to go, Mr. Shulchenko has registered a total time of 22:48:34, 1:38 minutes atop Syrian teammate Ibrahiem Alrefai and 4:15 ahead of Mervin Corpuz of 7-Eleven Roadbike Philippines.

He will wear the yellow jersey for the sixth straight stage when the Tour, which was now down to 75 riders from 77 before the stage, resumes in Friday’s 142.6-km Stage 9, another flat route that unfurls in Laoag and ends in Candon in Ilocos Sur.

Another Excellent Noodles bet, Briton Tyler Douglas Hannay, was with D’Reyna Orion Cement’s Erickson Delos Santos that checked in at sixth, three seconds behind in the lap, that shoved the former from fifth to fourth in the overall race, 4:34 minutes down.

Rounding out the top 10 were MPTD’s Mr. Lim (22:53:16), 7-Eleven’s Ronnilan Quita (22:53:20) and Antoine Huby (22:53:24), MPTD’s Rustom Lim (22:55:06), Seoul’s Jung Woo Hoo (22:55:10), and Indonesian club team Ponti Wijaya’s Muhammad Raihan Maulidan (22:55:17). — Joey Villar