Navy sustains fiery ride in Ronda Stage 5

ANTIPOLO CITY, Philippines – Standard Insurance-Navy struck like lightning and dominated Stage 5 where 6 of its riders headed by George Oconer checked in at the finish together to seize the lead in almost all the categories possible in the LBC Ronda Pilipinas 10th anniversary race on Thursday, February 27.

John Mark Camingao topped the 122.6km stage that started in Lucena City and ended in front of the capitol followed by 2018 Ronda king Ronald Oranza and many-time King of the Mountain Junrey Navarra.

El Joshua Carino, Ronald Lomotos and George Oconer were also in that group that clocked 3 hours, 12 minutes and 50 seconds in the 10-stage race. 

So impressive was the Navy men’s feat that they pulled away as early as the first 8km mark in Lucban, Quezon and kept their stranglehold of the lead until the finish where they were met by a loud crowd of local cyclists and fans.

Jan Paul Morales, the 2016 and 2017 winner, was originally part of that lead pack but decided to move back to the peloton of the race. 

The spectacular effort catapulted Oconer from 2nd in the general individual classification race to 1st with an aggregate time of 17:54:13.

And Oconer is expected to go all out to protect the red LBC jersey he will wear when the race resumes Friday with the 111.9km Stage 6 that will start at the capitol and end at the Tarlac Recreational Park in San Jose.

“It’s still too early to tell but we will do our best to protect the lead,” said the 28-year-old Oconer, who had been a perennial contender but never a winner.

The results also saw Oranza (17:55:28), Lomotos (17:55:31), Camingao (17:56:06), Navarra (17:56:30) and Carino (17:58:04) claim 2nd to 6th spots while shoving Mark Julius Bordeos of Bicycology-Army down to 7th in 17:59:27.

Rustom Lim of 7Eleven Cliqq-Ari21 by Roadbike Philippines was at No. 8 in 17:59:33, while Go for Gold’s Jonel Carcueva and Ismael Grospe Jr rounded out the top 10 in 17:59:41 and 18:00:01.

Standard also put a big separation from the rest of the field in the team race with a total clocking of 71:36:57, or 23.40 minutes ahead of Go for Gold, which jumped from 4th to 2nd in 72:00:37.

Bicycology-Army stayed at 3rd in 72:02:16 while 7Eleven sputtered from 2nd to 4th in 71:05:52.

Morales also led in the CCN sprint, Carino in the Versa KOM of the race supported by the Manny V. Pangilinan Sports Foundation and 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.

The only category that Standard didn’t snatch was the MVPSF Best Under-23 rider, which Grospe held. – Rappler.com