Guimaras leg crucial for Navy’s Morales

MANILA, Philippines - Jan Paul Morales braces for what he termed as a “make-or-break” bid in the crucial Guimaras stage tomorrow as he tries to become the first back-to-back winner of LBC Ronda Pilipinas.

With a shaky two-minute lead over Navy-Standard Insurance teammate Rudy Roque, Morales needs a strong finish in the Stage 12 individual time trial in Guimaras to firm up his repeat title drive.

Two days after the Calamba-Antipolo Stage 11, Morales and the rest of his Navy teammates went ahead of the pack to Iloilo to resume training and toughen up for the Guimaras leg.

“If I can hold on to the lead after the ITT in Guimaras, I think I’ll win it this year,” said Morales.

After Guimaras, the Ronda field will slug it out in the 209-km Iloilo-Antique-Iloilo Stage 13 before Ronda winds up with the 50-km Stage 14 criterium, also in Iloilo City.

After 11 stages, the Calumpang, Marikina City native is ahead of the pack with a total time of 37 hours, 25 minutes, 56 seconds with Roque pooling an aggregate clocking of 37:28:11.

Roque, 25, agrees Stage 12 will be crucial.

“We’ll see how it will turn out. If it’s for me, it’s for me. If not, I will be happy to finish second behind my teammate,” said Roque, the former leader who dropped midway in the race but bounced back by ruling the Calamba-Antipolo Stage 11.

Cris Joven of Kinetix Lab-Army is currently at No. 3 with 37:37:03; Go for Gold’s Bryant Sepnio jumped from No. 6 to No. 4 with 37:41:33; and RC Cola-NCR’s Lionel Dimaano moved from No. 8 to No. 5 with 37:46:05.

Completing the top 10 are Ilocos Sur’s Ryan Serapio (37:47:16) and Navy’s Daniel Ven Carino (37:48:28) and skipper Lloyd Reynante  (37:48:43), Navy’s Ronald Lomotos (37:48:45) and Kinetix Lab-Army’s Reynaldo Navarro (37:49:49).

Ronda is staking P1 million to the champion courtesy of presentor LBC. It is held in partnership with MVP Sports Foundation, Petron, Mitsubishi, Versa.ph, Partas, Maynilad, Standard Insurance, CCN, Bike Xtreme, NLEX, PhilCycling and 3Q Sports Event Management.