PALAYAN CITY, Nueva Ecija – Jan Paul Morales of Standard Insurance-Navy claimed his second straight stage victory as teammate George Oconer firmed his hold of the solo lead after Stage 7 of the LBC Ronda Pilipinas 10th anniversary race yesterday.
The 34-year-old Morales, the 2016 and 2017 champion, outsprinted Dominic Perez of Bicycology-Army and Rustom Lim of 7Eleven Cliqq-Air21 by Roadbike Philippines in a frantic mass finish in two hours, 35 minutes, and 20 seconds to snare the 110.6-kilometer lap that started in Tarlac City and ended here.
Morales’ victory firmed up his grip of the CCN sprint race in this 10-stage race presented by LBC and supported by the Manny V. Pangilinan Sports Foundation.
Morales and the rest of the Ronda cavalcade were met warmly by a big group of local riders as well as local folk headed by host Mayor Adrianne Mae Cuevas, who have joined Ronda as one of its sponsors while giving P100,000 to Team Nueva Ecija’s campaign.
It was the second stage triumph for the Calumpang, Marikina City native after he also reigned supreme in the Tarlac-Tarlac Stage 6 the day before.
Oconer was in that same group to keep his stranglehold of the individual general classification lead with an aggregate clocking of 23:04:31.
The 28-year-old Oconer wears the LBC red jersey for the third straight day in the 170-kilometer Stage 8 where they will tackle the dreaded ascent to Baguio City.
“We will know tomorrow (today) after the Baguio stage if we will keep the lead or not because the climb is really long and stiff,” said Oconer, the 2015 runner up who is seeking his first title.
Morales later admitted he went for the lap victory after seeing a 7Eleven rider up front. “We were just told there was a 7Eleven rider there so I just went for it, good thing I won,” said Morales, who sacrificed his title chances by helping Oconer and five other teammates – Ronald Oranza, Ronald Lomotos, John Mark Camingao, Junrey Navarra, and El Joshua Carino – zoom to the top after Stage 5 in Antipolo City last Thursday.
Morales’ triumph handed Standard its fourth straight lap triumph with the first two delivered by Lomotos in Stage 4 in Lucena City last Wednesday and Camingao in Stage 5.
Oranza, the 2018 Ronda king, was at second in 23:05:46, Lomotos at No. 3 in 23:05:49, Camingao at No. 4 in 23:06:24, Navarra at No. 5 in 23:06:48, and Carino at No. 6 in 23:08:22.
Rounding up The top 10 were Mark Julius Bordeos of Bicycology (23:09:45), Lim (23:09:47), and Go for Gold’s Jonel Carcueva (23:09:59), and Ismael Grospe Jr. (23:10:19).