The LBC Ronda Pilipinas will continue to be faithful to its original goal of producing promising young riders that it hopes to blossom into elite athletes ready for the international scene.
Moe Chulani, Ronda project director and LBC Sports Development head, said they are allowing national team members George Luis Oconer and Ronald Lomotos to skip this year’s LBC Ronda 2017 edition to race for flag and country in another local race as required by PhilCycling.
“As always, we will support PhilCycling’s program and anything that will be done for flag and country,” said Chulani.
“And rest assured that we will be relentless in our pursuit of discovering and producing future talents from the far-flung areas in the country.”
Oconer and Lomotos were supposed to suit up for Go for Gold and Navy, respectively, in this year’s race slated February 4 to March 4 from Vigan, Ilocos Sur to Iloilo City but a recent memo from PhilCycling forced them to skip the event to re-join with the national squad.
Go for Gold coach Eds Hualda said they are also in one with LBC and Ronda in its decision to let their cyclist join the national squad.
“Our team was founded on the principles of giving our national and elite level athletes opportunities to develop through additional trainin and races, both here and abroad and develop the next generation of elite athletes through our junior development program,” said Hualda.
Hualda’s husband, Ronnel, will skipper the Go for Gold team that will also be bannered by Jerry Aquino, Jr., Jonel Carcueva, Elmer Navarro, Agustin Queremit, Ryan Cayubit and Ismael Gorospe.
Hualda said they are now in the process of seeking a replacement of Oconer, who topped the qualifying races in Subic Bay and Bacolod City late last year.