Spaniard reigns supreme
Credit to Author: Tempo Online| Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2019 08:57:38 +0000
The peloton rides past the Calinog Public Market in Iloilo during Stage 3 of the 2019 Ronda Pilipinas on Sunday.
PANDAN, Antique – Spaniard Francisco Mancebo Perez of Matrix Powertag Japan survived the last-ditch challenge of his rivals, including Filipinos Ronald Oranza of Navy-Standard Insurance and Dominic Perez of 7Eleven Cliqq-Air21 by Roadbike Philippines, to rule the LBC Ronda Pilipinas 2019 that ended in this serene town here.
Perez, 42, stuck with Oranza and Perez almost all throughout the 148.9-kilometer fifth and final stage that started at the El Pueblo grounds in Roxas City and ended in front of the Pandan Bay Insitute before winding up at 50th in the stage, or 32 seconds off lap winner El Joshua Carino of Navy.
Carino, the 2018 Le Tour champion, bested reigning Tour de Langkawi champion Artem Ovechkin and two-time Southeast Asian Games gold medalist Mohd Harrif Saleh of Terengganu to claim his first stage win of this UCI-sanctioned race.
All three checked in with identical times of three hours, 24 minutes and 37 seconds.
At the end of the five-stage race that kicked off in Iloilo City and threaded through Guimaras and Roxas City and finished in Antique, Mancebo Perez, whose best Tour de France placing was fourth in 2005, finished with an aggregate time of 19:26:30 to claim his first title in a multi-stage race since topping the Tour of Egypt four years ago.
“I’m so happy it was over and we won,” said Mancebo Perez. “The team, not just myself, worked hard to make this win happen, it was really team work.”
And Mancebo needed a dominating Stage One victory in Iloilo City to build a massive lead that he intelligently nursed all through out to fend off Filipino challengers Oranza and Perez, who tried and failed to catch up.
Oranza, last year’s Ronda king who turned 26 yesterday, wound up second and the best Filipino rider after he finished 3:20 behind Mancebo while Perez wound up at third, or just three seconds behind the feisty Navyman.
Oranza was just too happy to finish as the best local rider.
“I’m okay with the top Filipino rider award. It still feels like I’m the back-to-back champion of Ronda,” said Oranza.
Navy’s Jan Paul Morales (4:03 behind), the 2016 and 2017 Ronda titlist, ended up fourth while Matrix’s Sano Junya (4:21), Korail Korea’s Joo Daeyeong (4:26), 7Eleven’s Irish Valenzuela (4:48), Army-Bicycology’s Mark Julius Bordeos (4:48), 7Eleven’s Rustom Lim (4:56) and Navy’s Rudy Roque (5:42).
Mancebo’s Matrix squad also emerged as overall team classification winner with a total clocking of 58:31:36 ahead of 7Eleven (00:12) and Navy (0:56).