NAGA CITY – Jerry Aquino, Jr. of Scratch It put on a devil-may-care style of riding and topped Stage Three to snatch the overall general classification lead from Mark Julius Bordeos of Bicycology-Army in the LBC Ronda Pilipinas 10th anniversary race on Tuesday.
Aquino, 27, edged Go for Gold skipper Ronnel Hualda and Bicycology-Army’s Dominic Perez in a thrilling mass finish to score several firsts in the event that started in Legazpi and ended at the Panganiban Drive here.
For winning his first-ever lap honor, Aquino also experienced to be on top of the standings for the first time of his blooming career.
“It was always my dream to wear the leader’s jersey so it was really a dream come true,” said Aquino, whose father Jerry Sr. was a veteran of the fabled Marlboro Tour in Filipino.
They were all given the same clocking of two hours, 47 minutes and 12 seconds.
Aquino will wear the LBC red jersey in today’s grueling 206km Stage Four, the longest lap in the 10-stage race presented by LBC and backed by the MVP Sports Foundation that starts in Daet, Camarines Norte and ends in Lucena.
The Makati City native gained a 10-second time bonus for his feat, enough to displace Bordeos after logging 9:43:39 – barely seven seconds ahead of the Sorsogon Stage One winner in this 10-stage race staking P1 million to the individual champion.
Aquino said the rivalry between 7Eleven Cliqq-Air21 by Roadbike Philippines and Standard Insurance-Navy benefited.
“We just watched them (7Eleven and Standard). It was really intense,” said Aquino.
7Eleven appeared to be winning the battle after five of its riders remained in the top 10 thus keeping the general team lead in event backed by 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.
Rustom Lim (9:43:52), Mark Galedo (9:43:59), Aidan James Mendoza (9:44:05), Marcelo Felipe (9:44:08) and Mervin Corpuz (9:44:08) held their spots from fourth to eighth.
Standard’s George Oconer, for his part, kept his stranglehold of No. 3 with 9:43:52 but he was the only rider from his team up there as teammates and former champions Jan Paul Morales and Ronald Oranza were stuck at 13th in 9:45:02 and 18th in 9:45:17, respectively.
Rounding up the top 10 were Alvin Benosa of Celeste Cycles Phl Dev Pro Team (9:44:09) and Jester Neli Mendoza of Bicycology (9:44:13).
The Galedo-skippered squad stayed at the team held with 36:08:59 ahead of Standard (36:11:30) and Bicycology (36:11:39).
Standard’s Junrey Navarra, Celeste’s Roel Quitoy and Go for Gold’s Ronnilan Quita conquered the perilous mountains of Sugnay, Camarines Sur facing Misibis Bay but couldn’t sustain their lead as the Aquino-led peloton managed to catch up with the troika in the final 20km stretch.
