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Close finishes in Bike For Life 50K race
Three events in last Saturday’s Bike For Life 50-kilometer race ended up in close finishes.
Emily Morrell maneuvers her MTB as she makes her climb toward Isa Drive in last Saturday’s Bike For Life 50-kilometer race. Morrell finished second in the women’s MBT. (Jon Perez)
Mark Isip, Bob Ferrer, and Kanae Quinn ruled the men’s mountain bike and men’s road bike divisions, and women’s road bike, respectively, by a hairline with Beth Kohnen the only exception as she had a comfortable lead to clinch the women’s mountain bike title.
The Top 3 riders in the men’s MTB and road bike, and women’s road bike events seemed to be shadowing each other in the last few meters of the race that started and ended at the Pacific Island Club’s south parking lot.
Isip topped the men’s MTB, just almost two seconds ahead of runner-up Charlie Sendin, who also secured second place by a few seconds against Noel Altamirano. Isip crossed the finish line in 1:36:07.38 with Sendin following closely at 1:36:08.56. Altamirano settled for third after submitting 1:36:09.24.
The same scenario happened in the men’s road bike event with the riders going neck-and-neck entering the finish line.In the end, Ferrer outsprinted young rider Erico Castro as the former crossed the finish line 1.13 seconds ahead of the latter. Ferrer clocked in 1:31:43.91 against the 1:31:44.78 of Castro, who again finished second in the annual event. Nap Dizon, last year’s men’s road bike champion, finished third with a time of 1:31:45.37.
In the women’s division, Quinn managed to hold on against Heather Kennedy’s strong challenge to the finish line. Quinn timed in at 1:36:09.72, to win the women’s road bike crown against the 1:36:10.02 submitted by Kennedy, who bested the 1:36:10.84 of triathlete Kimiko McKagan.
Kohnen, last year’s runner-up in women’s road bike, this time was the fastest in women’s MTB, having a comfortable lead of almost 10 minutes against closest purser Emily Morrell. She had a time of 2:14:51.66 against the 2:23:41.62 of Morrell, while Clare Summers ended up at third with 2:32:41.78.
The annual bike race—supported in part by Pepsi, Monster, Calvo’s Insurance, and IT&E—was a fundraising event with the proceeds going to Commonwealth Cancer Association. It was also considered as a pre-Hell of the Marianas race.
The race route started at PIC’s south parking lot with bikers heading toward Airport and Tun Herman Pan roads before turning right to Isa Drive and up to Capitol Hill. From Capitol Hill, bikers turned right to Chalan Pale Arnold and went to Wing Beach where the U-turn slot is located. From Wing Beach they headed back to Beach Road until they reached the finish line at PIC.
