Roque keeps eye on lead vs rested field

ANGELES CITY, Pampanga, Philippines – The LBC Ronda Pilipinas 2017 resumes today with Rudy Roque of Navy-Standard Insurance out to firm up his hold of the lead in the 137km Stage Three firing off at the Angeles Municipal Hall here and ending in Subic Bay, Zambales.

Roque put in back-to-back runner-up finishes in the first two stages in Vigan, Ilocos Sur to wrest the early lead with an aggregate time of five hours, three minutes, three seconds with teammates Ronald Lomotos and Archie Cardana taking the next two spots with clockings of 5:03:23 and 5:03:44, respectively.

Roque has vowed to strike hard in the next three stages which he said would be crucial to his title drive.

Today’s race and Stage Four will test the elite field’s mountain-climbing skills with ascents in the mountains of Morong, Bataan.

In Stage Five on Sunday, Roque and the rest of the 96-man field will negotiate the 251-km lap unfolding in Lucena City and ending in Pili, Camarines Sur with lengthy serpentine ascents in the mountain passes of Tatlong Eme in Atimonan, Quezon.

“Those are the three critical stages that I feel will make or break a campaign. If I’m still No. 1 after the three stages, then I think I will have a good chance of winning here,” said Roque, whose previous best effort was ninth in the first Ronda edition six years ago.

Roque said he would keep an eye on his fancied rivals – Bike Extreme’s Jaybop Pagnanawon, defending champion Jan Paul Morales of Navy and Cris Joven of Kinetix Lab-Army.

Pagnanawon, whose father Rolando topped the fabled Tour in 1986, is at No. 5 with a clocking of 5:06:44, or just less than two and a half minutes off Roque.

The 31-year-old Morales, who edged Navy’s Ronald Oranza to win last year’s overall crown, made his move by topping Stage Two criterium moved to No. 17 from No. 23 with a 5:08:11 clocking while Joven, 31, is at No. 18 with 5:08:18.

Morales said he is torn between going for his second straight title or backing Navy’s young guns like Roque in their title bid.

“I’ll try to close the gap and if I think I still have a chance, I will go for it definitely. If not, I will gladly help my younger teammates win it,” said Morales.

Go for Gold’s Ismael Grospe, Jr. is also in contention at No. 4 with a time of 5:05:31 while Jay Lampawog is at No. 6 with 5:06:56.

Completing the top 10 are Ilocos Sur’s Ryan Serapio (5:06:57), Go for Gold’s Jonel Carcueva (5:07:00), Quitoy (5:07:01) and Go for Gold’s Orlie Villanueva (5:07:07).

Navy also paces the team race with a total time of 20:17:32, nine minutes ahead of Go for Gold’s 20:26:49 and Kinetix Lab Army’s 20:30:49.

The country’s premier cycling race offers 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.