JERMYN-JONEL-KIM SHOW IN TAGAYTAY

and Mayor Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino hosted in Tagaytay City.

P rado won the 15-km individual time trial (ITT) in 34 minutes and 43.80 seconds . She clocked 3:22:04 in the 104-km road race that was punishing and cruel in the final 15 kms where the riders almost yielded to the steep climb from Agoncillo in Batangas to Alfonso in Cavite toward the Praying Hands monument in Tagaytay City.

C arcueva was as unrelenting in the 127-km men’s road event punctuated by the same climb where majority of the riders had to dismount and push their bikes up the climb whose gradient ranged from 5 percent to as nerve-sapping as 28 percent.

Tuesday last week with the criterium races around a 2.2-km loop starting and ending at the Praying Hands with Prado and De Los Reyes providing a dramatic you-or-me showdown made story-book perfect by blinding fog and heavy rain.

The women raced eight loops with De Los Reyes and Prado forming the tip of the competition in the final four laps when a heavy downpour and fog made visibility difficult to 5 meters—and it was only close to 5 o’clock in the afternoon.

It was in the final 200 meters where De Los Reyes made a mad sprint to the finish to win gold and relegated Prado, the 2019 Southeast Asian Games gold medalist, to the silver medal.