The Real Story Behind The 16-Minute+ Delay

Based on National Cycling Team Head Coach Delos Reyes’ narrative, the night before the event, the problematic time trial (TT) bike was pre-screened twice and was approved to roll on at the 3rd Asian Youth Games team time trial event in Manama, Bahrain.

However, the following day, at the starting block, before the Team Philippines was released, the officials flagged the bike and disallowed it to proceed because its aerobar exceeded the limit by about a centimeter.

In a desperate attempt to avoid complete disqualification due to inconsistent technical ruling, a kababayan (compatriot) stepped in to lend a standard road bike.

According to Coach Delos Reyes: “May isang kababayan po nagpahiram ng road bike para maka-start lang po kami, kasi hindi na kaya pang palitan yung aerobar, sobrang tagal na po ang oras, kaya behind po tayo ng 16mins plus pag start ng Philippines, pero kung tama lang po yung pag-start time namin at walang nangyaring aberya, baka pasok tayo sa 3rd place, base sa time nila.”