Waiter to winner: Former restaurant crew Joseph Javiniar rules Tour of Luzon Clark loop stage

CLARK, Philippines – No surprise finishers this time around.

A new challenger enters the arena as Joseph Javiniar of Excellent Noodles scored a convincing conquest of Stage 5 Clark-to-Clark loop at the halfway mark of the 2025 Tour of Luzon with a time of three hours, 29 minutes and 20 seconds over the 152.92-kilometer route on a sweltering Monday, April 28.

From Clark, to the hills and valleys of Tarlac, to New Clark City, then back down to Clark, Javiniar held full control as he joined the eight-man lead pack from the very start of the route, then bombed away full-speed in the final three kilometers to break away for the glory of his team, Excellent Noodles.

Just four years removed from bussing tables as a waiter in Pagsanjan, Laguna, the 24-year-old Javiniar is now a reigning national criterium (closed circuit) champion and certified Tour of Luzon leg winner.

Behind him, finishing 42 seconds later was Jonel Carcueva of MPT DriveHub and Marc Ryan Lago of Go for Gold.

“This route was really difficult because of the terrain changes, uphill, downhill, uphill, downhill,” Javiniar said in Filipino.

“I wasn’t expecting to win because when I was going uphill, I was already falling behind, but I just endured so I can finish the race.”

Earlier, Victoria Sports’ Ean Cajucom claimed Stages 3 and 4 with identical last-second sprinting strategies, earning him multiple sprint awards and the distinction of donning the purple stage winner jersey for two days.

Thanks to Javiniar’s exploits, Excellent Noodles claimed the stage team classification win despite being 12th out of 16 teams in the team general classification (GC). The team GC lead and inside track to P1 million still belongs to Standard Insurance Philippines, still with a 19-second lead over MPT DriveHub.

Korean stays on top overall

The individual GC crown, meanwhile, remains on the head of the Korean king Dae Yeong Joo, whose four-minute, 30-second lead all the way back from Stage 1 and firm grasp on the P500,000 prize remains unchanged over second-running Ronald Oranza of Standard Insurance.

The Great Revival tour doesn’t get any easier from this point onwards as Stage 6 offers a challenging 168-kilometer trek back up north from Clark to Lingayen, Pangasinan, the hotbed of Philippine cycling.

The homestretch begins now, but the journey is far from over. – Rappler.com