{"id":265684,"date":"2017-12-04T06:06:01","date_gmt":"2017-12-03T20:06:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=265684"},"modified":"2017-12-04T06:06:01","modified_gmt":"2017-12-03T20:06:01","slug":"ph-pros-sweep-hell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/ph-pros-sweep-hell\/","title":{"rendered":"PH pros sweep \u2018Hell\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Phippines\u2019 Mark John Lexer Galedo celebrates as he crosses the finish line and win the 11th Hell of the Marianas Century Cycling Race held last Saturday. (Jon Perez)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Philippines\u2019 Mark John Lexer Galedo shrugged off the challenge put up by a strong field of visiting pro riders to rule the 2017 Hell of the Marianas Century Cycling Race and lead a 1-2-3 finish for the Filipino contingent.<\/p>\n

Galedo, who missed last year\u2019s men\u2019s pro title, this time made sure his name would be etched on the perpetual trophy as he completed last Saturday\u2019s 115-kilometer race in 3:15:51, more than four seconds ahead of youngster and fellow PH pro Ronald Lomotos. This year\u2019s edition, which started and ended at the main entrance of the Mariana Resort & Spa, was a bit longer than the original 100K course due to the ongoing road construction along Isa Drive going up Capital Hill.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard going to the Bird Island Lookout because of the headwind and the sunlight. I was also careful in trying to pull away since my back tire can\u2019t get enough traction on the road and was slipping,\u201d said Galedo, who was third behind compatriot Jan Paul Morales last year, when asked about the hurdles he had to endure during the race.<\/p>\n

Several others echoed Galedo\u2019s sentiments, as the humidity caused by the late Friday night rain and an early Saturday morning drizzle made the road slippery.<\/p>\n

But Galedo, being a veteran of International Cycling Union (Union Cycliste International) races, made a gamble as they further went deeper along the course, keeping a safe distance against his compatriots.<\/p>\n

The 19-year-old Lomotos, a native of Mangaldan town Pangasinan province, tailed Galedo the entire race, but wasn\u2019t able to move ahead of the 2014 Le Tour de Filipinas overall champion. Lomotos, the 2017 Ronda Pilipinas Best Young Rider recipient and Galedo\u2019s teammate under the Roadbike banner, reached the finish line in 3:15:55.7\u2014six minutes ahead of Philippine Navy-Standard Insurance\u2019s Morales, who clocked in at 3:21:32. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is truly \u2018Hell\u2019 with the heat and headwind,\u201d Lomotos said moments after crossing the finish line. \u201cIt was really tough and I was cautious with my ride since this was my first time to join the race.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dan Viel Carino, another Filipino bet riding under 7 Eleven, was two seconds behind Morales at 3:21:34, while 2012 third placer Aleksandr Dorovskikh fell to fifth at 3:24:14.<\/p>\n

Morales won the event with the original course of 100K that included the downhill race from Isa Drive in Capital Hill to the flat road of Chalan Pale Arnold. His winning time last year was 3:04:51, while Galedo registered 3:06:18, behind the 3:05:32 of Japanese Makoto Morimoto.<\/p>\n

Galedo, Lomotos, and Morales pulled the rug under the Hong Kong riders, who were the early favorites in this year\u2019s race, but their unfamiliarity with the course, the weather, and a couple of technical problems with their bikes booted them out of the Top 5.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Philippines\u2019 Mark John Lexer Galedo shrugged off the challenge put up by a strong…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":265722,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[182,2547,14557,19306],"class_list":["post-265684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-capital-hill","tag-isa-drive","tag-japanese-makoto-morimoto","tag-le-tour"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265684","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=265684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}