{"id":257489,"date":"2017-08-03T06:00:09","date_gmt":"2017-08-02T20:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=257489"},"modified":"2017-08-03T06:00:09","modified_gmt":"2017-08-02T20:00:09","slug":"veterans-rule-unity-lions-cycling-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/veterans-rule-unity-lions-cycling-race\/","title":{"rendered":"Veterans rule Unity Lions cycling race"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_257491\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-257491\" style=\"width: 230px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Lions-pix-230x300.jpg\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-257491\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Multisport veteran Manny Sitchon, second left, leads the winners in the men\u2019s road bike over-56 division of last Sunday\u2019s 2nd Annual Saipan Unity Lions Club bike race. (Contributed Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Familiar names lorded it over in the 2nd Annual Saipan Unity Lions Club bike race held last Sunday from Banzai Cliff in Marpi.<\/p>\n<p>A total of 42 cyclists braved the early morning race and the partially wet conditions of the 60-kilometer course that had participants taking three loops from Banzai Cliff to Mobil Tanapag.<\/p>\n<p>Nap Dizon remained Saipan\u2019s King of the Road after successfully defending his men\u2019s road bike title with J.C. Libut and Ariel Garcia placing second and third, respectively. Emily Northrop duplicated Dizon\u2019s feat in the women\u2019s division followed by Vernice Ronda.<\/p>\n<p>Ernie Henzon, Jerome Diyco, and Renren Gaviola were the Top 3 in the U40 men\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>Bob Oropesa bested Dencio Bautista in the men\u2019s 41 to 45, while Avel Villafuerte outraced Jojo Valencia in men\u2019s 46 to 50 division.<\/p>\n<p>Cesar Fortaleza ruled the men\u2019s 51 to 55 age group followed by Ronnie Santos and Bobby Vargas. Manny Sitchon topped the men\u2019s over-56, relegating Daniel Calvo and Conrad Libut to second and third places, respectively.<\/p>\n<p>Mark Isip won the men\u2019s mountain bike category, while Noe Valdisimo came in second and Ding Ramos at third. Ricky Suba was the lone competitor in the men\u2019s 41 to 45, while Andrew Estepa, Jay Diyco, and Nestor Abing were the Top 3 in the 46 to 50 division.<\/p>\n<p>Floro Derexes beat Florence Antonio for the men\u2019s 56 above title with Ponce Corotan coming in at third. Times were not recorded for the fundraising tournament.<\/p>\n<p>SULC official Joe Digno said they decided to hold an annual race to give the island\u2019s cycling community another event. \u201cSaipan has a vibrant cycling community. They have a lot of activities, so we decided to have another race so they remain active.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added that they also plan to organize other sports fundraising events like a bowling tournament sometime this year. \u201cBut we will still have to meet and discuss our plans and where would the proceeds go.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dignos said SULC would give the proceeds of Sunday\u2019s race to Karidat Social Services for their charity projects. \u201cWe\u2019re going to turn over canned goods, rice, and other food items to Karidat. From there, they would be the ones who would distribute it to our needy brothers and sisters.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Familiar names lorded it over in the 2nd Annual Saipan Unity Lions Club bike race&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":257491,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1133,17808,17809,17721],"class_list":["post-257489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-banzai-cliff","tag-emily-northrop","tag-manny-sitchon","tag-sulc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}