Quinones rider to beat in LBC Ronda Pilipinas

MANILA, Philippines - In a race that puts premium on guts, daring and endurance, Philippine Open and former Southeast Asian Games champion Eusebio Quinones has the cutting edge.

Quinones, whose latest win is the Felipe Juico Memorial Race last May, will definitely be a rider top contenders will be on the lookout for in next month’s 2011 LBC Ronda Pilipinas with his superior showing in mountain bike and downhill riding in local and foreign races.

He is a perfect fit for the LBC Ronda Pilipinas, which promises to be the toughest challenge in years as it exposes riders to all sorts of terrain, including the 188km Baguio-to-Baguio stage that will be the turning point of the 12-stage tour of key cities of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

The winner at the end of the 1,650 km, 20-day journey which starts Sept. 24 will receive a tax-free champion’s purse of P1 million and the champion team also gets P1M in the richest event since the last of the Marlboro Tour in 1998.

Quinones, gold medalist in the SEA Games in 2003 in Vietnam, is billed as one of the top favorites among 96 riders divided among 16 teams which, on its inaugural staging, will have a mix of veterans – in their 30s – and a breed of upcoming riders who have made a name in mini races during the last 10 years and have passed the rigid provincial eliminations last summer.

Quinones, 35, will be the skipper of the Bicolandia squad which includes this month’s King of the Mountain race champion Alvin Benosa, John Ricafort, Michael Pili, Alan Ricafort and Noel Bumalay.

Negros will be parading riders 23 years and under in Romnick Bibit, Aldrin Alojada and Roy Carbonera who will be riding with veterans Ronald Gorantes (skipper), Leopoldo Japitana Jr. and Fidel Ovas Jr.

Southern Tagalog will be composed of skipper Nelson Mangahis, Manuel Nalus III, Emelito Atilano, Michael Ochoa, Alexie Camerino and Elmer Atilano.

The sponsoring LBC Express, Inc., the country’s leading courier firm, has put up a record purse of P7 million which includes prizes for the top 20 in the individual classification and all 16 finishers in the team classification.

The individual runner-up earns P500,000, third P250,000, fourth P125,000 and fifth P100,000, while the next four finishers in the team competition gain P500,000, P250,000, P100,000 and P90,000.

Individual prizes include daily stage prizes worth P1.58 million for the top 20, while prologue, time trial and special stage prizes are worth P300,000.

Other competing teams are East Pangasinan, Nueva Ecija, Central and West Pangasinan, Tarlac, Cagayan Valley, Ilocos Sur, NCR, Davao, North and Central Mindanao, and Cebu and commercial teams American Vinyl and 7-11. They will be joined by the under-23 national team.