Palayan City–Jan Paul Morales of Philippine Navy-Standard Insurance wasn’t planning to get another stage win.
But when an opportunity came his way in the last 100 meters, the 34-year-old Morales grabbed it. He overtook Philippine Army-Bicycology’s Dominic Perez and 7Eleven Cliqq-Air21 in a bunched finish to rule Stage Seven of the LBC Ronda Pilipinas 10th anniversary race yesterday.
“Bigla na lang. Nandun na lang,” said Morales, who logged a time of two hours, 35 minutes and 20 seconds at the end of the 110.6 km run from Tarlac City to the Poblacion Road finish line in Caimito, Palayan in Nueva Ecija.
Morales came in with a big group in the last kilometer inside Palayan City as they chased down a four-man lead pack, which was led by 7Eleven rider Marcelo Felipe and Team Nueva Ecija’s Arjay Peralta.
The Navymen waited patiently before they made their move to catch the four-man breakaway composed of three Central Luzon-born riders that is Felipe, Peralta and Team Tarlac’s Ryan Tugawe, and Army-Bicycology’s Cris Joven, who is from Albay.
The Navymen were keeping a close watch at Felipe, and when they sensed their chance in the last 11 kilometers, they chased down the lead group.
“Nung umatras kami kumuha ng tubig, sinabi ng coach na humabol si Marcelo, at biglaan na lang din na nanalo ako. Pero naghabol lang din ako,” said Morales, who earlier took Stage 6.
Morales and his teammates eventually took the stage honors, after reaching the finish line together with Go For Gold, the Armymen, 7Eleven and Scratch It.
As a result, Navyman George Oconer kept his 75-second lead in the overall individual classification standings, with teammate Ronald Oranza trailing in second.
Oconer has a total clocking of 23:04:31.
The 28-year-old Oconer will wear the red jersey for the third straight day in the 170km Stage Eight, where many riders fear the dreaded Baguio accent.
“Bukas, malalaman natin, pagkatapos ng Baguio stage, kung amin pa rin ito,” said Oconer, the 2015 runner up.
The Navymen got a little help from Go For Gold in fending off 7Eleven’s attempt to dominate the stage.
This is after Go For Gold’s Mark Ryan Lago prevailed over 7Eleven rider Mervin Corpuz in the sprint stage at the 26.2 km mark in Zaragosa.
A big group of local riders as well as local folks headed by host Mayor Adrianne Mae Cuevas welcomed the finishers at the finish line, and joined organizer as one of its sponsors, and she even gave P100,000 to Team Nueva Ecija’s campaign.
Morales’ triumph is the fourth straight time that the Navyman has won a stage, with the first two delivered by Lomotos in Stage Four in Lucena Wednesday, Camingao in Stage Five.
Oranza, the 2018 Ronda individual champion, is at second in 23:05:46 in the overall individual standings.
Teammates Ronald Lomotos is at third in 23:05:49, followed by John Mark Camingao at fourth (23:06:24), JunreyNavarra at no. 5 in 23:06:48 and El Joshua Carino in sixth (23:08:22).
Mark Julius Bordeos of Bicycology (23:09:45) is in seventh, followed by Rustom Lim of 7Eleven (23:09:47) in eighth, Go for Gold’s Jonel Carcueva (23:09:59) and Ismael Grospe, Jr. (23:10:19), in ninth and 10th.
This event is backed by Palayan, Nueva Ecija, Versa, 8A Performance, Print2Go, Petron, Green Planet, Bike Xtreme, Standard Insurance, Spyder, CCN, Lightwater, Prolite, Guerciotti, Black Mamba, Boy Kanin, Vitamin Boost, NLEX-SCTEX, Maynilad, 3Q Sports Event Management Inc., LBC Foundation and PhilCycling.