Keith DeFiebre Cycling team member Dongkey Sanchez managed to bag two silver medals in the Asian Mountain Bike Series – East Ridge Sandugo International Mountain Bike Challenge in Binangonan, Rizal last weekend.
Sanchez finished second in both the Men’s Masters-A downhill and cross country races.
Of the two, Sanchez was quite surprised with his performance in the downhill category.
“I didn’t expect to get two silver medals because it’s been two years that I haven’t had downhill,” said Sanchez, who only had two practice runs for the race.
In the cross country, the race was held simultaneously with the juniors category, which meant they used the same track. This posed a problem for Sanchez.
“I was supposedly at first. Then I got stuck in traffic with the juniors as I reached them. It was hard to overtake. That’s why the chasing group moved past me in the last lap,” he said.
Meanwhile, teammate Pamela Jane Ruiz finished fourth in the Women’s Juniors category.
Other Cebuanos who competed were Niño Surban, who placed 10th in the elite category, and Jun Duron, who finished 29th.
Duron admitted it was tough competing with the elite.
“It’s really challenging. The pacing is just different and (the competition) is just strong,” said Duron, a renowned biker in the Masters category who raced against the elite for the first time since 2016.