Thursday, August 23, 2007 Surban makes fourth place despite falling off bike, gear glitches
FALLING of his bike and a technical glitch weren’t enough to derail Cebu’s cycling wonder, Niño Surban.
After those problems, Surban lagged by more than five minutes but managed to overhaul all these setbacks to pull off a decent fourth place finish in the Phat Tyre Sunday Mountainbike Tournament last Sunday at the Tampines Mountain in Singapore.
Surban and three other Indonesians battled in the sprint during the final stretch and in fact crossed the finish line with the same clocking. The Indonesians, however, worked together to prevent Surban to take the lead.
“It was a really good finish considering all the obstacles he had to hurdle,” said Surban’s mentor Oscar “Boying” Rodriguez.
“I wanted to win badly, but misfortune just got to me first,” said Surban.
Surban said that bad luck struck when, in the second lap, he had to stop for a while because his bike’s chain got tangled and he had to make a quick fix.
Gap
Another factor for him to lag behind by a huge gap from the lead pack was that all racers in all categories were released almost at the same time and Surban said the other racers would not allow those at the back to overtake.
“The race route was getting crowded and when he tried to get past, he collided with another racer and fell,” said Rodriguez.
By this time, Surban was already left behind by at least five minutes.
Surprise
“I had thought that that was it for him, he will lose. But he never fails to surprise me,” said Rodriguez, when Surban, not caring about the muddy trail, was able to erase the huge gap and was able to close in during the final lap.
“He was already at the front of the three-man lead pack. These are all Indonesians. They were taking turns blocking Niño, while two of them where at his side,” said Rodriguez.
Surban said that during the final sprint, his break caliper was packed with mud, which made it more difficult to turn.
“I also had a hard time shifting and my break caliper wasn’t performing well because of the mud,” Surban said.
Surban said that he was disappointed since he had a chance to win.
“It wasn’t that I almost won, I managed to overtake them. I had a chance to win but I just got unlucky,” he said.
Rodriguez however said that there was no reason for his stalwart to feel bad because it was impressive how he was able to recover.
Rodriguez added that this is just part of Surban’s tune-up for the 25th Southeast Asian Games this coming December.
Next week, the duo will once more be going out of the country for another tournament. They are set to compete in a race in Penang, Malaysia on Sept. 2 before joining another race in Japan. (MCB)
