Tour of Luzon: Huby wins Stage 10, Shulchenko widens overall lead

French Antoine Huby of 7-Eleven Roadbike Philippines finishes first in the MPTC Tour of Luzon Stage 10 in Ilocos Sur.–CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

CERVANTES, Ilocos Sur—Nikita Shulchenko extended his hold on the overall lead in the MPTC Tour of Luzon after placing second behind Stage 10 winner Antoine Huby in the punishing climb toward historic Bessang Pass on Saturday here.

Huby, the French rider of 7-Eleven Roadbike Philippines, ruled the challenging stage in three hours, 30 minutes and one second after a 131.2-kilometer journey that began in Candon.

READ: Tour of Luzon: Ronnilen Quita climbs into title conversation

Here’s how Antoine Huby of 7-Eleven Roadbike Philippines captured the punishing Stage 10 of the MPTC Tour of Luzon at Bessang Pass, with overall leader Nikita Shulchenko in second #TourOfLuzon2026 @inquirersports pic.twitter.com/TtE6bxvQVP

— Jonas Terrado (@jonasterradoINQ) May 9, 2026

But the bigger story was Shulchenko finishing second behind Huby by 50 seconds, but ahead of his closest pursuers in the individual general classification category.

That gave the Russian cyclist of Filipino-owned LCW UAE Cycle a huge gap of 3:44 over teammate Ibrahiem Alrefai after the lap that finished in front of a memorial that where Philippine and American forces fought in the final stronghold of the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II.

Huby climbed to third from seventh in the standings, 3:56 back of Shulchenko, while 7-Eleven teammate Ronnilan Quita is fourth but dropped 5:57 off the yellow jersey bearer.

Quita placed third in Stage 10 by 2:26 over Huby.

READ: Tour of Luzon: Nikita Shulchenko keeps lead after Stage 8

Malaysia’s Muhammad Mazlin is now fifth overall, 8:36 behind, while 7-Eleven’s Mervin Corpuz fell to sixth from third with a gap of 9:05. The rest of the top 10 are MPT DriveHub’s Rustom Lim (+9:28), Go for Gold Philippines’ Rench Michael Bondoc (+10:07), MPT’s Nash Lim (+10:07) and Seoul Cycling Team’s Jung Woo Ho (+10:11).

Stage 10 lived to its billing as a potential game-changer, as well as a test to Shulchenko’s mettle, with Bessang Pass being a steep climb with plenty of sharp curves.

But Shulchenko proved his worth as someone who’s capable in the climb, especially with the final 26.7 kilometers which was a Hors category in the King of the Mountain.

Meanwhile, Huby’s win and Quita’s place in the podium allowed 7-Eleven to leapfrog Go for Gold and into the lead in the team classification standings.

7-Eleven has a total of 117:37:57 for a difference of 5:28 over Go for Gold and 13:01 over LCW.