Hometown boys shine in Ronda Stage 5

DAGUPAN, Pangasinan – Pangasinan's proud sons Dominic Perez, Santy Barnachea, Baler Ravina and Mark Julius Bonzo all made their province proud by hugging the spotlight in Stage Five of the Ronda Pilipinas 2015 presented by LBC that started down in Tarlac and ended in this bustling city Wednesdays.

7-Eleven's Perez, a 20-year-old native of Santo Tomas, took stage honors while PSC-PhilCycling's Bonzo, who is from Sual, finished second ahead of Cebu-VMobile's John Renee Mier, PSC-PhilCycling's Jerry Aquino, Jr. and Navy's Lloyd Lucien Reynante and El Joshua Carino, who all wound up with identical times of three hours and 4.42 minutes.

The 20-year-old Perez's thus emerged with his first ever stage victory since he joined Ronda last year.

It was made extra special that he got to see his family and friends when the Ronda caravan passed through his hometown in Santo Tomas.

"I'm happy that I won it before my provincemates and I made my family friends back home proud of what I accomplished," said Perez, who belongs to a family of rice farmers, in Filipino.

Barnachea, the ageless 38-year-old rider from Umingan, neither won the stage nor finished in the top 10 but him keeping the overall individual lead and the red LBC jersey was enough reason for the Pangasinan folks to be ecstatic.

After five stages, the 2011 inaugural Ronda champion remained atop the heap with a total clocking of 17:29.03.

Barnachea gained a second from closest pursuer George Oconer, Jr. of PSC-PhilCycling with 17:36.41 and over two minutes ahead of Army's Cris Joven, who fell from No. 3 to No. 4 with 17:40.33.

For Ravina, a native of Asingan, he made a massive leap from outside the top 10 to No. 9 with 17:41.52 while holding the polka dot Mitsubishi jersey symbolic of the King of the Mountain leader.

"It's always an inspiration for me to race here in my own province," said the 33-year-old Ravina.

Ravina should be a rider to watch out for approaching the dreaded mountains of Baguio, which hosts the last three stages of this annual race considered the biggest and richest in Asia, as he won KOM titles and the 2012 LeTour because of his strong mountain-climbing skills.

"I'm in tip-top shape, we'll see what happens in Baguio," said Ravina.

Like Ravina, another strong climber, 2013 champion Irish Valenzuela of Army should be in contention after vaulting from No. 9 to No. 7 with an aggregate time of 17:41.05, or just 12 minutes off the pace.

Rounding up the top 10 were Navy's Jan Paul Morales (17:38.29), Ronald Oranza (17:40.38) and Lloyd Lucien Reynante (17:40.44), Cebu-VMobile's Elmer Navarro (17:41.15) and Zealand-DK Denmark's Edgar Nieto (17:42.19).

Riders face the 152-km Stage 6 that will pass through Naguillan and end at Harrison Ave.

It gets tougher from there as the race concludes with an 8.8-km individual time trial in the morning tomorrow and a 74.5-km criterium in the afternoon of the same day.

While Barnachea (red LBC), Morales (blue Petron), Ravina (polka dot Mitsubishi), Navy's John Mark Camingao (White Standard Insurance) remained jersey leaders, Navy's Daniel Ven Carino lost his yellow MVP Sports Foundation jersey for 17-18 years old to 7-Eleven's Jay Lampawog.