Philippine riders eye team title

VIGAN —  With the MPTC Tour of Luzon: Great Revival individual general classification race already out of its hands, Standard Insurance has recalibrated its target to the prize where it has a legitimate shot at winning – the P1 million team purse.

“It will be meaningless if we attack in the individual race, so we’re now just focusing on the team,” said Standard Insurance skipper Ronald Oranza, whose squad topped the 68.5-kilometer Stage Two Team Time Trial in an hour, 22 minutes and 31 seconds.

The win in the relatively flat stage, which started in the quaint but charming Paoay and ended in front of the provincial capital here in vibrant Vigan, earned Standard, which also has former Ronda Pilipinas champions Jan Paul Morales, George Oconer and Ronald Lomotos in it, a cool P70,000.

And they did it despite Dave Eeron Cangayao, their under-23 rider, encountering mechanical problems and Morales reeling from the bruises he sustained during his crash late in Stage One.

“We didn’t expect to win this stage because Cangayao, our young rider, broke his chain. We just fought hard despite it,” said Oranza.

But for undisclosed reasons, it was agreed upon in the pre-race managers’ meeting last Wednesday the clocking here will not be reflected in the overall team race standings.

Regardless, the flying Navymen remained the overall team leaders since they emerged with the fastest clocking after the grueling 190.2km Paoay-Paoay stage Thursday.

Coincidentally, it was also the same stage where Oranza came up with the realization that the individual race leader, Stage One winner Joo Dae Young of South Korea’s Gapyeong Cycling Team, is now out of reach.

“Our team time will be endangered if we attempt to attack him (Joo) so we might just as well concentrate on the team,” said Oranza, who’s trailing Joo by a whopping four and a half minutes.

Go for Gold, a squad skippered by Jerico Jay Lucero, was second while 7-Eleven Road Bike Philippines, which has captain Rench Michael Bondoc and former Tour legend Placido Valdez’s son Gilbert, was third with both clocking identical 1:24:39.

There was some confusion though when 7-Eleven was initially announced the stage winner before it was immediately corrected.

MPT Drivehub Cycling Team, for its part, registered the second fastest time in the stage but fell to fourth after it was penalized for feeding its cyclists outside the assigned feeding zone.

The 1,074km, eight-stage race resumes today with the rolling 135km Stage Three that will be flagged off in Vigan and finish near the San Juan Municipal Hall in La Union.

And Oranza and his eager teammates are looking forward to it.

“I like Stage Three,” said the native of Villasis, Pangasinan.