CLARK FIELD, Pampanga — There was a time during the punishing 160.6-kilometer Stage 5 ride of the Tour of Luzon on Monday that Joseph Javiniar of Excellent Noodles thought he was not going to fulfill his mission of winning his first career lap.

“I wasn’t expecting that I would win this stage. It was very difficult to break away from start to finish,” said Javiniar, who zoomed towards the finish line and left a seven-man lead pack eating dust, coolly making it back here with a clocking of three hours, 29 minutes and 20 seconds.

Javiniar was referring to the winding and twisting roads in San Jose in Tarlac that made it hard for the 100 riders from 16 teams to handle as they pedaled all the way to New Clark City before heading back to the former United States Air Force Base that was totally abandoned following the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the 1990s.

Coming in second was Jonel Carcueva of MPT Drive Hub, who crossed the finish line 42 seconds later and Marc Ryan Lago of Go For Gold, who checked in third.

Ean Cajucom of Victoria Cycling Sports Team, who won Stages 3 and 4, could only place eighth after finishing one minute and eight seconds after Javiniar, who used to work as a waiter in a Filipino restaurant in Pagsanjan, Laguna, before deciding to devote his time to competitive cycling.

The 24-year-old Javiniar recalled during one instance “when I felt that I was going backwards as I was trying to move up.”

“I just did my best to endure it,” said Javiniar, who only got involved in cycling in 2019.

“I was just happy doing rides.”

But now that he has reached a milestone, Javiniar, clearly not used to the attention he got after winning, swears he will concentrate on becoming better and better as he hopes to win more races.

‘I wasn’t expecting that I would win this stage. It was very difficult to break away from start to finish.’

Holding back his tears, the stage winner could only credit his triumph to teamwork.

“Everyone (on the team) cooperated,” he added.

Still, Javiniar’s rise to the top didn’t rock the overall individual standings as Korean Joo Daeyoung remained on top after arriving with a bunch of riders.

Joo is ahead by four minutes and 30 seconds over Standard Insurance’s Ronald Oranza and four minutes and 36 seconds over Aidan James Mendoza of Go For Gold.

Stage 6 (174.5 kilometers) will be Clark to Lingayen — another challenging ride — on Tuesday and Stage 7 (15.2 kilometers) will be Lingayen to Labrador team trial on Wednesday.

The eighth and final leg (177.54 kilometers) — from Lingayen to Baguio City on Thursday — will also determine the King of the Mountain winner.

The individual general classification champion stands to get P500,000 while the team titleholder receives P1 million cash prize.

This year’s event was made possible by Manny V. Pangilinan’s Group of Companies and backed by the Philippine Olympic Committee, Philippine Sports Commission, Games and Amusements Board, Bases and Conversion Development Authority and MVP Sports Foundation.