Fast Freddy Cayco the best mechanic here in Bulacan town puts on 34 teeth mountain bike cogset to the rear wheelset of raymond see's SEVEN ODONATA prior to the Master's cup finals 2005
the Masters Cup King of the Mountain Trophy to be awarded to the top 3 executive cyclists to reach burnham park baguio city on stage 3 (size3 feet x 2 feet high) was designed by raymond see who owns rmrmetalfab
Team Waterwood Report: MASTERS CUP EXECUTIVE SERIES 3 Days Stage Race Dec 9,10,11 2005 HACIENDA LUISITA TO BURNHAM PARK BAGUIO
Stage 1 Hacienda Luisita Tarlac to Alaminos Pangasinan 125 kilometers
The concluding episode of the Masters Cup Executive Series starts its first leg from Hacienda Luisita (home of former Philippine President Corazon Aquino) in the town of Tarlac enroute to Alaminos Pangasinan Town ( which is famous for the 100 islands - a famous tourist
destination) on the 9th of December 2005.Prior to this day, the original schedule of
the Masters Cup final 3 days stage was supposed to be on Nov 25,26,27…however due to unforeseen circumstances the race organizer had decided to postpone the final 3 days race to the new schedule. This unfortunate event irritated a lot of executives who had planned their training and business schedules in time for the big race in November. As a result there were rumors circulating that a lot of people had decided not to participate in the finals, because the new dates in December had now created conflicts with their work loads and or family holiday vacations.Team Waterwood had a luncheon meeting at Dads Restaurant at SM Megamall, 12 noon 1st December 2005 to decide how many members will race. In that meeting, the team was also divided….others had decided not to race, others wanted to go on vacation, others promised to try while 4 members decided to race. Globe G Cash wonder boy Leian Cruz was in the vicinity of SM Megamall. I called him up and extended the invite for him to attend our meeting (he was riding in Bugarin in the morning and was heading straight to the Eastwood office about lunch time) so that team Waterwood could find out from him if Globe G Cash is racing or not. Leian says about 5 of them would race, while others could not due to commitments. He in turn wants to know how many of Waterwood would race…I told him about 4 or 5.
One day before race day, 5pm in the afternoon 8th November, Michael Miranda was in my bike shop doing last minute Dura Ace 10speed shopping, Dennis Dionisio had also gone shopping for a Dura Ace 12-27 cogset, I went shopping for a mountain bike 11-34 teeth combo complete with Deore LX mountain bike rear derailleur and the 3 of us went directly to MJY bike shop, whose owner Fast Freddy is my only trusted bike mechanic in bulacan town. We had our bikes fixed…everybody was laughing at my one off ugly duckling SEVEN ODONATA with the mountain bike gear but I wasn’t. I had not had time to go mountain training for the last month…so the weakest climber needs the bigger gears. Jojo Cardenas came around 8pm and we had a short meeting. Jojo says he couldn’t make it already because he had too much work at the office…he just dropped by to bid us good luck. Team Waterwood manager Engr Rolly Cruz had committed his time to go to Hongkong Disneyland on Christmas vacation with his family and he too couldn’t make it.
So on race day (there was heavy rains in manila and bulacan town this morning) Dennis Dionisio, Dindo Borjal, Michael Miranda and myself met at the Petron Jollibee Sta Rita station at 4 am in the morning enroute to Hacienda Luisita for the first stage. It must be noted that Michael Miranda’s grandmother had passed away this very day 9th December but inspite of this, the very supportive family of Michael had decided for that Michael must race. Michael Miranda’s mother had asked me to look after the safety of his son and was also at the Petron station to bid him farewell.
By 6:30 am our team had linked up at Chowking Hacienda Luisita with teammate Ren Badelles who had brought along his good friends Mr. Rudy Balbon de la Cruz to be our chief Coach and Mechanic, Nutrition/Conditioning and Chef Mr. Sidi Benzon with Mr.Rico Benzon as our driver of team support vehicle. I said we brought along also..super light weight domestique Dindo Borjal to be our masseur and water boy. And so everything was set.
By 7:30 am we saw at the starting line only the Team of Globe G Cash, the team of FEN, and the dreaded Pangasinan team of JAZZY sportswear. We waited till 7:45am but since nobody arrived (some teams signified they would race but maybe because of foul weather in Manila, they decided not to go) the race started at 8:am Team waterwood game plan was simple: only Michael Miranda is capable of causing an upset (Michael had trained for a month doing 800kms weekly long rides including solo 200 kilometer rides to and from Baguio City, I cannot report his secret training ride so didn’t mention anything to anyone) as for the rest of the team I could only suggest to hang on as long as we could, then wait for each other and do team time trials until we see the finish line. I was joking at the starting line, Waterwood is assured of top ten finishes because there were only 9 legitimate EXECUTIVE cyclists so we only need to CROSS THE FINISH LINE. Everybody laughs.
And so we Executive riders were released with the category A riders …
When the riders were released after the 10km rolling start. Team JAZZY took off like crazy over 55 kilometers on my speedo for over 20 minutes and by 20kilometers mark I could only see my teammates Ren and Dennis at the back of the pack. I joined them and swapped pulls. We saw Ren broke spokes on his rear Shimano wheel and so he had wheel changed. At 40 kilometers Ren had a rear wheel puncture and coach Rudy dela Cruz decides to give Ren his old Shimano wheel with broken spoke for him to ride 15 minutes until the replacement wheel had the inner tubes replaced inside our team vehicle (moving team vehicle!). When the good wheel was done, Ren had to stop again and had his rear wheel replaced. As soon as he had the good wheel, he pulled so hard over 38kph on my speedo I couldn’t follow his lead. Dennis was pulling at 34-35kph and I was pulling at 33kph being again the weakest link for not having enough time to train due to work.
Inside our team vehicles, our coach was shouting instructions and laughing, because whenever I’m pulling he would immediately ask somebody to replace me, because he said the maximum speed I could pull was SAME AS MY RACE NUMBER 33, so he had to find the higher numbered riders and ask them to pull.
We continued with our team time trial mode until we reach the 100kilometers mark at SUAL town where there appeared out of nowhere 3 zigzag climbs with stiff switchbacks. Dennis Dionisio who had been training in Sierra Madre took control of the lead and Ren and I tried to follow but both of us cramped. Ren wanted Dennis to slow down and wait, but I told Ren to let him go, because Dennis had trained for the climbs. So I rode the remaining long long long 25 kilometers to the finish with Ren. Twilight Zone time again for me after the 3 switchbacks and Ren looked worried because I am no longer talking to him, so Ren decided to cheer me up by pointing to all the Jollibee advertising signages.
The signages had kilometer readings and when one sign says its 1 kilometer to go Ren and I had sighs of relief. I asked Ren for a banana and after I took the banana I took the lead. With 500meters to go Ren had double cramps and at the brink of quitting so I had to wait for him. At 200 meters to go we saw the Finish Line BLUE Kite and our coach started honking the horn of our team vehicle indicating it was time for us to kick in at high gear for the sprint. Dennis dionisio finished in 7th place, Ren finished 8th and I finished at 9th spot almost hitting an oncoming van at the finish. We arrived 4 hours 8mins unofficial, still with a high average speed of 30kph. My personal best for a 95kms race was 3:04 . In this stage I checked and saw we did a 2 hours 38mins for 95kilometers, so I told Dennis and Ren we did Great!
Giant killer Michael Miranda did a fantastic job and caused an upset by taking 4th place behind Maiqui Dayrit of Team GLOBE Gcash who outsmarted him and nipped him on the line. Michael was teary eyed and un consolable at the finish. We shared the same bed at the hotel and he couldn’t sleep. He was stunned by the sorry loss. I told him to GET IT OVER WITH AND DO BETTER TOMORROW, we went drinking that night and luckily for me, a drunken Michael Miranda isn’t a violent Michael at all…in fact he is the laughing drunken master and he was laughing the night away while we were all too tired to hear his story so we went to sleep.
to be continued…
Inside our team vehicles, our coach was shouting instructions and laughing, because whenever I’m pulling he would immediately ask somebody to replace me, because he said the maximum speed I could pull was SAME AS MY RACE NUMBER 33, so he had to find the higher numbered riders and ask them to pull.
We continued with our team time trial mode until we reach the 100kilometers mark at SUAL town where there appeared out of nowhere 3 zigzag climbs with stiff switchbacks. Dennis Dionisio who had been training in Sierra Madre took control of the lead and Ren and I tried to follow but both of us cramped. Ren wanted Dennis to slow down and wait, but I told Ren to let him go, because Dennis had trained for the climbs. So I rode the remaining long long long 25 kilometers to the finish with Ren. Twilight Zone time again for me after the 3 switchbacks and Ren looked worried because I am no longer talking to him, so Ren decided to cheer me up by pointing to all the Jollibee advertising signages.
The signages had kilometer readings and when one sign says its 1 kilometer to go Ren and I had sighs of relief. I asked Ren for a banana and after I took the banana I took the lead. With 500meters to go Ren had double cramps and at the brink of quitting so I had to wait for him. At 200 meters to go we saw the Finish Line BLUE Kite and our coach started honking the horn of our team vehicle indicating it was time for us to kick in at high gear for the sprint. Dennis dionisio finished in 7th place, Ren finished 8th and I finished at 9th spot almost hitting an oncoming van at the finish. We arrived 4 hours 8mins unofficial, still with a high average speed of 30kph. My personal best for a 95kms race was 3:04 . In this stage I checked and saw we did a 2 hours 38mins for 95kilometers, so I told Dennis and Ren we did Great!
Giant killer Michael Miranda did a fantastic job and caused an upset by taking 4th place behind Maiqui Dayrit of Team GLOBE Gcash who outsmarted him and nipped him on the line. Michael was teary eyed and un consolable at the finish. We shared the same bed at the hotel and he couldn’t sleep. He was stunned by the sorry loss. I told him to GET IT OVER WITH AND DO BETTER TOMORROW, we went drinking that night and luckily for me, a drunken Michael Miranda isn’t a violent Michael at all…in fact he is the laughing drunken master and he was laughing the night away while we were all too tired to hear his story so we went to sleep.
to be continued…
raymond see
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