Morales rules Ronda Stage 9, keeps lead
STA. ROSA, Laguna – Jan Paul Morales of Navy-Standard Insurance nipped Ronnel Hualda of Go for Gold in a frenetic finish to snatch the Stage Nine criterium win yesterday and firm up his hold of the overall individual lead in the LBC Ronda Pilipinas at the Paseo de Sta. Rosa grounds here.
The 31-year-Morales, who grabbed the red jersey in Stage 8, outsprinted Hualda in a mad dash to the finish, further staking his claim as the country’s top sprinter, and putting him on course for the P1M champion’s purse.
The duo, however, finished with identical clocking of one hour, five minutes, 58 seconds.
It was the fourth lap triumph of Morales, who topped Stage Two in Vigan, Ilocos Sur, Stage Three in Subic Bay and Stage Six in Daet, Camarines Norte.
The Marikina-based Morales gained an eight-second bonus that netted him an aggregate clocking of 30:00:58, or 2.37 minutes ahead of teammate and former leader Rudy Roque(30:03:35).
“My goal is to keep our rivals in check and if I can gain some time, it will be a bonus for me,” said Morales.
He also moved four stages away from clinching his second Ronda title and becoming the first back-to-back winner of the country’s biggest race.
Morales also seeks to match the two- title feat of Pangasinan’s Santy Barnachea, who won Ronda’s inaugural edition in 2011 and the fifth offering two years ago.
Morales also leads the sprint and King of the Mountain races.
But he remained wary of his chances, saying anything can happen in the last four stages.
“I can’t celebrate until I’ve completed the last four stages so I need to race safely and intelligently,” said Morales.
Hualda, the Go for Gold skipper, however, thinks Morales is inching closer to the crown.
“If this is basketball, he (Morales) is ahead by 40 points,” said Hualda.
Navy team captain Lloyd Reynante succeeded in slowing down the challenge put up by Morales’ other rivals and even ended up making it to the podium at No. 3 in 1:06:26.
Navy also retained the overall team lead with a total time of 121:12:04, ahead of Go for Gold (121:32:17) and Kinetix Lab-Army (121:53:34).
Navy’s Ronald Lomotos is at No. 3 with 30:05:56 while Go for Gold’s Jonel Carcueva stayed at No. 4.
Rounding up the top 10 are Kinetix LabArmy’s Cris Joven (30:06:50), Go for Gold’s Bryant Sepnio (30:08:34) and Elmer Navarro (30:08:41), RC Cola-NCR’s Leonel Dimaano ( 30: 08: 48), Go for Gold’s Ismael Grospe Jr. ( 30: 10: 46) and Navy’s Jay Lampawog (30:10:58).
Ronda is presented by LBC in partnership with MVP Sports Foundation, Petron, Mitsubishi, Versa.ph, Partas, Maynilad, Standard Insurance, CCN, Bike Xtreme, NLEX, PhilCycling and 3Q Sports Event Management.