Javiniar tops Stage 5 of Tour of Luzon
At A Glance
- CLARK, Pampanga -- From taking cycling as a hobby six years ago, Joseph Javiniar has come a long way to slowly making his presence felt in the local racing scene after topping the 160.6-kilometer Stage 5 of the 2025 Tour of Luzon that started and ended at the Filinvest Mimosa Acacia Drive here.
CLARK, Pampanga -- From taking cycling as a hobby six years ago, Joseph Javiniar has come a long way to become one of the promising and tactical riders of the country today.
A testament to his new-found status was his topping the 160.6-kilometer Stage 5 of the 2025 Tour of Luzon with aplomb in a race that started and ended at the Filinvest Mimosa Acacia Drive here.
The 24-year-old Pagsanjan, Laguna native, who represents Excellent Noodles, broke away from the eight-rider lead pack in the last five kilometers on his way to a superb solo finish by timing 3 hours, 29 minutes and 20 seconds.
MPT Drivehub’s Jonel Carcueva and Go for Gold’s Marc Ryan Lago finished second and third after coming in 42 seconds later along with Standard Insurance’s Jeremy Lizardo and Victoria Sports’ Nichol Pareja.
Still fresh from winning the national criterium race in Tagaytay this year, Javiniar said they just stuck to the team’s game plan for the day.
“Ito talaga yung plano namin, ang maging aggressive nang sabay-sabay at nagawa naman namin,” said Javiniar, who gave up his job as a waiter in 2021 to focus on competitive cycling.
“Sobrang hirap din nung ruta,” he admitted.
The hilly and winding course proved challenging, indeed, for the remaining 108 riders, but Javiniar, along with Lizardo, Carcueva, Lago, Pareja, Dreyna Orion Cement’s Erickson Lopez and Nash Joshua Lim, and 7-eleven Cliqq Roadbike Philippines’ John Patrick Pagtalunan pulled away as early as the seven-kilometer mark entering the Sacobia Bridge in New Clark City.
The breakaway group remained intact throughout the race, even putting a three-minute, 40-second gap between them and the peloton in the 70-km mark.
The peloton slowly made its way in the last 15 kilometers with Korean overall leader Joo Dae Yeong and two of his teammates at Gapyeong Cycling Team at the front, cutting the gap from the lead group by only a minute.
Joo came in 22nd after timing 3:30:28 with 57 others, but still retained the yellow jersey as the overall individual leader with an accumulated time of 14:07:40.
Standard Insurance’s Ronald Oranza was four minutes and 30 seconds behind at second, while Go for Gold’s Aidan James Mendoza remained at third with 4:36 back.
Standard Insurance also kept its grip on the team general classification with 56:50:50, just 19 seconds ahead of MPT Drivehub and 55 seconds ahead of Go for Gold.
Stage 6 will be another challenging race, a 174.5-km course that will start at the Filinvest Mimosa Acacia Drive in Clark and will finish at the Maramba Blvd in Lingayen, Pangasinan.