Ronda hits road; Lapaza pullout averted
BUTUAN CITY – The LBC Ronda Pilipinas 2016 fires off today with a promise of an explosive kickoff in Mindanao after former champion Reimon Lapaza and his whole Butuan City team and national team mainstay Junrey Navarra reconsidered their earlier decision to withdraw on the eve of the event.
That makes the opening leg worth watching with Lapaza and the Navy Insurance team, led by skipper Lloyd Lucien Reynante and veterans Ronald Oranza, Jan Paul Morales and Joel Calderon, tipped to slug it out for top honors and prizes in various categories, including the leg champion prize of P50,000 and stage purse of P20,000.
“We came here to win,” said Reynante on the eve of Ronda’s sixth edition presented by LBC and LBC Express, sanctioned by PhilCycling and sponsored by Manny V. Pangilinan Sports Foundation, Petron and Versa Radio-Tech 1 Corp. with Maynilad and NLEX as minor sponsors.
Lapaza and his 20-man squad, and Navarra, who confirmed their participation as early as two months ago and were all set to start Wednesday, begged off late Thursday night and yesterday, respectively, citing various reasons.
But host Butuan City Mayor Ferdinand “Jun” Amante interceded and convinced Lapaza and his group to reconsider their decision.
“I told them the whole city is expecting them to participate and we’re glad they listened,” said Amante.
Lapaza came out of nowhere to rule the 2014 edition of the annual race and pocketed P1 million.
“All’s well that ends well,” said LBC Sports Development head and Ronda project director Moe Chulani.
Also out to challenge the big guns is Ranlean Maglantay, from Marbel, South Cotabato who is the youngest at 18.
Maglantay, whose father Randy is a motor mechanic, will vie not just for the top purse of P50,000 for leg honors but also the P25,000 for the Petron Local Hero plum.
“I’m thankful to LBC Ronda Pilipinas for giving me the opportunity to compete in this race,” said Maglantay.
Butuan will also host Stage Two, a criterium before the race proceeds to Cagayan de Oro for Stage Three, another criterium, on Tuesday.
Ronda will be at the scenic Dahilayan, Manolo Fortich next for the individual time trial Stage 4 next Thursday before capping with the Stage Five criterium in nearby Malaybalay, Bukidnon.
Ronda has also included a mountain bike race in each of every leg as part of its campaign to expand the base of the annual bikathon.
From Mindanao, action shifts to the Visayas for the Stage One criterium in Bago City, Negros Occidental on March 11 with Iloilo hosting the next stage, another criterium on March 13. Stage Three will be a road race from Ilolilo to Roxas City on March 15 while Stage Four will be another criterium race for the ITT in Stage Five, both in Roxas on March 17.
Ronda will culminate with the Luzon stages consisting of a Stage One criterium at the Paseo in Sta. Rosa, Laguna on April 3, a Stage Two ITT from Talisay to Tagaytay the next day, a Stage Three criterium in Antipolo City on April 6, a Stage Four road race from Dagupan to Baguio on April 8 and a Stage Five criterium in the City of Pines.
Ronda organizers also announced they will still accept entries an hour before the race officially starts.