PILI, Camarines Sur – Jaybop Pagnanawon of Bike Extrme showed impressive form as he topped the long, gruelling Stage 5 yesterday in the LBC Ronda Pilipinas 2017 that started in Lucena City and ended at the Camsur Watersports Complex here.
Pagnanawon, son of former Tour king Rolando, displayed remarkable grit as he made his move just barely out of Camarines Norte, or 28 kms to the finish line, and then outsprinted Navy-Standard Insurance’s Daniel Ven Carino and RC Cola-NCR’s Leonel Dimaano when the two caught up with the former in the final stretch.
When the race ended, the 28-year-old Pagnanawon came up with his first stage victory in six hours, 58 minutes and 13 seconds, which was the same time of Carino, who is also a Cebu native like the former.
Dimaano checked in at No. 3 in 6:58:13.
Pagnanawon’s feat was made more impressive with the fact that Stage Five was the longest lap in this 14-stage race at 251 kms.
“I was surprised that I still have it in the final 28 kms and just went for it when everyone was contented in pacing themselves up,” said Pagnanawon, whose father won the fabled Marlboro Tour in 1986, in Filipino.
Despite his recent triumph, Pagnanawon, who worked as a bike instructor outside competing, however, is out of race for the overall individual honor after he encountered mechanical problems in the Angeles-Subic stage.
Ronda is staking P1 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.
