ILOILO CITY – Kinetix Lab-Army’s Mark Julius Bordeos bested five others in a frantic finish to top the penultimate Stage 13 even as Jan Paul Morales of Navy-Standard Insurance moved a stage away from officially wrapping up his second straight title in the LBC Ronda Pilipinas 2017 at the Iloilo Business Park here yesterday.
Bordeos, 21, outsprinted Navy’s Ronald Lomotos, Kinetix Lab-Army’s Cris Joven, RC Cola-NCR’s Leonel Dimaano, Mindanao Sultan Kudarat’s Roel Quitoy and another Armyman Lord Anthony del Rosario to secure his very first lap victory in this annual race considered the biggest in the country today.
Lomotos finished second while Joven third.
Bordeos, Lomotos and Joven checked in with the same time as Dimaano, Quitoy and del Rosario in five hours, 19 minutes and one second in the 209-km lap that started and ended here but passed Antique.
“Thankful and happy that I won the stage here,” said Bordeos, a native of Laoac, Pangasinan, in Filipino.
The 31-year-old Morales checked in at eighth in the stage in 5:19:10 behind No. 7 Marvin Tapic of Kinetix Lab-Army, who clocked 5:19:03, that further solidified his grip of the solo lead in the overall individual race with an aggregate time of 43:50:45, or a whopping 13.09 minutes lead over teammate Rudy Roque who has 44:03:54.
Today’s 14th and final stage – a 50-km criterium that will start and end at the Iloilo Business Park for the second straight day – will serve as a victory ride for the Calumpang, Marikina City rider.
All in all, Morales has won five stages as he topped the Stage Two criterium in Vigan, Ilocos Sur, the Angeles-Subic Stage Three, the Pili-Daet Stage Seven and the Stage Nine criterium in Sta. Rosa, Laguna and the Stage Two Individual Time Trial in Guimaras the day before.