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Familiar faces crowd MTB race
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- Pacific Islands Club’s Bike For Life women’s MTB champ Glorybel Tan, second left, and third placer Heather Brook, center, join race organizers for a photo-op after the awarding ceremony. (Jon Perez)
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- Men’s MTB Top 3 finishers, Mark Isip, third left, Noe Valdisimo, second left, and Ding Ramos, third right, pose with organizers of the 2017 PIC Bike For Life. (Jon Perez)
Familiar faces in the cycling community crowded the podium in the mountain bike division of last Saturday’s Pacific Islands Club-Saipan Bike For Life.
Mark Isip led the Top 3 men’s winners, while Glorybel Tan duplicated the feat in the women’s division. They were the two fastest in the 50-kilometer MTB race that started and ended at PIC’s south parking lot with a turnaround point at Banzai Cliff.
Isip clocked in at 1:23:27.09 in another mad dash to the finish line to beat Noe Valdisimo by 53 tenths of a second, as the latter registered 1:23:27.62. Ferdinand Ramos came in at third with his 1:23:46.12.
Tan, meanwhile, crossed the finish line in 1:38:23 for a full two-minute lead over closest pursuer Beth Kohnen, who timed 1:40:56.81. Heather Brook was the third best female MTB rider, finishing the course in 1:48:49.78.
Isip and Tan, along with youngsters and road bike winners Jerome Diyco and J.C. Ferrer, received free entries to this year’s Hell of the Marianas set in December. They also got gift certificates at Seaside Grill, PIC waterpark passes for two, and a case of Pepsi.
J.C. Libut and Nap Dizon came in second and third behind Diyco in the men’s road bike, while Zairya Marfega and Kimiko McKagan joined Ferrer at the podium in the women’s side.
The runners-up received Sunday brunch certificates at Magellan’s, waterpark passes for two, and a case of Pepsi, while the third placers went home with lunch certificates at Magellan’s, waterpark passes for two, and a case of Pepsi.
The Bike For Life was a fundraising event and proceeds from the weekend race will go to the Commonwealth Cancer Association. It was also the second bike race under the HOM Century Cycle Race Series after last month’s Bike and Run For Cure. The final race in the series is the DFS Bike for Her on Oct. 28.
PIC Sports & Events manager Keoni Ichihara thanked everyone who joined the race and the event’s sponsors—Pacific Trading Co., Bridge Capital, HOM, the Northern Mariana Islands Cycling Federation, and PIC—for their support.
