THE PHILIPPINE team’s bid to clinch an Olympic berth was halted in the 2nd stage of the 2.2 UCI Tour of Jelajah in Malaysia yesterday.
The Philippine team only placed 10th out of 18 teams with a time of 21 minutes and 3 seconds in the 16km Team Time Trial.
The Filipinos were a minute and 20 seconds behind winner SkyDive Dubai, which clocked 19 mins and 43 seconds. They were a minute behind Rio game rivals Hongkong and Korea.
In the General Classification (GC), Marcelo Felipe dropped from third to 12th place. Rivals King Cheung of Hongkong and Kim Okcheol of South Korea placed in second and fourth, respectively.
Team Captain Mark Galedo drowned from 15th to 20th place. He was 3:10 behind SkyDive Dubai’s Francisco Mancebo.
Philippines’ Baler Ravina, Dominic Perez and Cebuano Nelson Martin contributed 45th, 54th and 78th finishes in GC, respectively.
In the Team Classification, the Filipinos dropped from third to fourth place as SkyDive Dubai, HongKong and Australia took the top three spots, respectively
The remaining three stages run today until Sunday.