MANILA, Philippines – With most, if not all, the cyclists playing it safe and stalking each other closely, Roadbike Philippines-711 remained stuck in 6th place after the 149-kilometer 7th stop of the Binh Duong TV Cup Tour of Vietnam last Tuesday.

But rookie Nikko Cortez was more daring than the rest of his Pinoy teammates, taking 4th place in the intermediate sprint that eventually earned him 6th place in the relatively flat race from the beach resort city of Na Thrang to Phan Rang.

The 21-year-old protégé of Roadbike Philippines president and team manager Bong Sual led the Filipinos in a time of two hours, 14 minutes and 12 seconds, the same clocking of all the 70 survivors with two stages left in the nine-leg bikathon.

Veterans Lloyd Lucien Reynante and Merculio Ramos Jr. shared 18th and 19th spots while Rhome Antonio and Mark Guebarra were at Nos. 32 and 34, respectively, as the RP-711 riders checked in 4th in the leg.

Reynante (18:31.45) likewise was still at No. 17 overall, 1:51 off Mongolian overall leader Tuguldur Tuulkhangai (18:29.54), while Antonio (18:32.59) , Cortez (18:33.02) and Ramos (18:32.09) were running in 27th, 28th and 30th places, respectively.

The RP-711 team was in No. 6 overall with an aggregate time of 55:35.28 and will need a lot of scrambling to do if it wants break into the top three at the end of the competition.

The Filipinos were 4:39 behind overall team frontrunner Domesco Dong Thap (55:30.49), which nursed a slim three-second lead over fellow Vietnam club BVTV Saigion (55:30.52) and 10 seconds up on third placer ADC-Truyen hinh Vin Long (55:30.59).