Navy cyclists keen on winning overall Ronda title

PILI, CAMARINES SUR – Navy-Standard Insurance skipper Lloyd Lucien Reynante considers topping the team event as equally important to one of his riders claiming the overall individual title in the LBC Ronda Pilipinas 2017.

So when the 14-stage race considered the biggest cycling event in the country resumes Tuesday with the 46.6-km Pili-San Jose Stage Six Team Time Trial, the 38-year-old Reynante expects his cyclists to give nothing less than their best effort.

"We're not thinking of the prize, we're thinking of the prestige of winning the team event because we want to dedicate it to Navy and our sponsor Standard Insurance," said Reynante in Filipino.

"We consider the team title as important as the individual crown," he added.

After five stages, the heavily favored Navymen, an interesting mix of seasoned cyclists and promising young bets, are currently atop the field with a total time of 72 hours, 48 minutes and 47 seconds, or a little over 20 minutes ahead of closest pursuer Go for Gold.

Go for Gold, a squad skippered by Ronnel Hualda and coached by his wife Eds, has an aggregate clocking of 73:09:42 while a Cris Joven-led Kinetix Lab-Army is at No. 3 with a time of 73:21:41.

Bike Extreme, a team headed by Stage Five winner Jaybop Pagnanawon, is at No. 4 with 73:58:12 while RC Cola-NCR is at No. 5 with 74:14:56.

Completing the top 10 cast are Ilocos Sur (74:21:48), Zambales (75:31:29), Neopolitan (75:31:29), Mindanao-Sultan Kudarat (77:40:03) and South Luzon (77:53:18).

Navy's recent success can be attributed mostly to Rudy Roque, Ronald Lomotos, Daniel Ven Carino and last year's titlist Jan Paul Morales.

Roque is on top with an aggregate time of 18:12:48 seconds while Lomotos, Carino and Morales are in Nos. 2, 3 and 4 with clockings of 18:13:47, 18:14:43 and 18:15:51, respectively.

Cris Joven of Kinetix Lab-Army is expected to challenge Navy as he is currently at No. 5 overall with a time of 18:15:51 after jumping from as far as 24th in Stage One, to No. 9 in Stage Three and now No. 4.

Rounding up the top 10 were Go for Gold's Elmer Navarro (18:17:57), RC Cola-NCR's Leonel Dimaano (18:18:01), Go for Gold's Ismael Grospe, Jr. (18:19:02), Army's Lord Anthony del Rosario (18:19:44) and Go for Gold's Jonel Carcueva (18:20:33).

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