SUBIC BAY – Kinetix Lab-Army’s Cris Joven outsprinted defending champion Jan Paul Morales of Navy-Standard Insurance and Ryan Serapio of Ilocos Sur in the mad dash to the finish to top Stage Four of the LBC Ronda Pilipinas 2017 that started at the Lighthouse Marina and ended at the Harbour Square here.
Joven, 30, checked in with the same time as Morales and Serapio and a big group of riders in two hours, 40 minutes and six seconds but clinched an eight-second bonus for clinching his very first stage win in this year’s edition of the country’s biggest cycling race.
“I made my move in the final stretch when I sensed I still have some energy left in me inside,” said Joven in Filipino.
Joven also said he was happy with his performance despite the fact that he only started to train on Jan. 11 after he focused on his job as an Army man for the whole of last year.
“I’m surprising myself because I wasn’t expecting much in this race because I was off cycling for one year and only returned to action last month,” said Joven, whose best finish here was fourth overall five years ago.
Navy’s Rudy Roque managed to cling on that same Joven-led group to keep the red LBC jersey with an aggregate time of 11:12:15.
Roque’s lead, however, is slowly vanishing at the face of a mighty pursuit by the 31-year-old Morales, who is now No. 2 and just a minute and a half behind with a total clocking of 11:13:45.
After a forgettable start, Morales has topped the Stage Two criterium in Vigan, Ilocos Sur Sunday and the Angeles-Subic Stage Three the day before and then eked out a second place effort on this one to jump from 23rd on Day One to second overall after four stages.
“I knew I’ll do good in the last two stages because I trained here for a month late last year,” said Morales, a native of Calumpang, Marikina.
Roque, for his part, said he’s just taking his time.
“I was a marked man since I took the lead and I’m just happy to still remain on top even though they keep watching over me,” said Roque, a proud son of Tibo, Bataan.
Lomotos slid from No. 2 to No. 3 with a time of 11:14:33.
Serapio leapt from No. 7 after Stage Three to No. 4 with 11:16:07, thanks to his recent podium finish.
Joven was also a big gainer as he zoomed from No. 14 to No. 9 with 11:16:48 and should eat more minutes as the race progresses.
Rounding up the top 10 were Navy’s Jay Lampawog (11:16:12), Kinetix Lab-Army’s Reynaldo Navarro (11:16:21), Go for Gold’s Joshua Mari Bonifacio (11:16:28), Navy’s Daniel Ven Carino (11:16:35) and Go for Gold’s Ismael Grospe, Jr. (11:17:43).
The race will take a two-day breather before resuming action on Sunday with the dreaded Lucena-Pili Stage Five, the race’s longest lap at 251 kms that was made difficult by the ascent at Tatlong Eme in Atimonan, Quezon.
Ronda is staking R1 million to the champion courtesy of presentor LBC and in partnership with MVP Sports Foundation, Petron, Mitsubishi, Versa.ph, Partas, Maynilad, Standard Insurance, CCN, Bike Xtreme, NLEX, PhilCycling and 3Q Sports Event Management.
