Gorantes off to flying start in LBC Ronda

MALAYBALAY, Bukidnon, Philippines  – Negros’ Ronald Gorantes, a veteran of the new generation of cycling greats, left the top guns biting the dust with a blazing run in the last 4km and won the opening stage of the LBC Ronda Pilipinas in this mountain city at the heart of Mindanao.

The Air Force man from Victorias, Negros Occidental, an eight-year Tour veteran, ruled the 156.5-kilometer stage that started in Cagayan de Oro for his first ever stage victory since copping the 2003 Eagle of the Mountain race on his rookie year.

The 29-year-old Gorantes clocked four hours, 22 minutes, 49.8 seconds to pocket the stage prize worth P50,000 while making himself a marked man in this 12-stage, 20-day event offering a total pot of P7 million, including a juicy P1 million to the both the individual and team champions.

“To tell you honestly, I wasn’t expecting to win because there are a lot of strong riders participating here so I was just contented to play catch most of the way,” said Gorantes, who dedicated his victory to his family, including five-year-old son Aldrin and two-year-old daughter Nadine.

“But when I got the opportunity in the last four kilometers, I didn’t hesitate and gave it all to win it,” he added.

7-Eleven snatched some of the stage prizes as four of its riders –Lucien Reynante, Sherwin Carrera, Irish Valenzuela and Mark John Lexer Galedo – won everything the LBC Ronda offered except for the stage win.

The 32-year-old Reynante, a favorite here after coming off a ninth place overall finish and emerging King of the Mountain in last month’s Tour of Brunei but has never won a Tour title in his more than a decade in the circuit, ran away with the Magnolia Purewater Sprint King lead while Valenzuela came out way ahead in the Air Asia King of the Mountain section.

To cap it off, 7-Eleven, which wound up third in the team races also in the Tour of Brunei, gained the upper hand in the team races but could’ve have won stage honors if they hadn’t fizzled out in the final stretch.

All dyeing their hair blond on the eve of the event as a sign of unity, Carrera ended up ninth in 4:23:01.2, Valenzuela 10th in 4:23.04.0, Reynante 11th in 4:23:10.4 and Galedo 16th in 4:25.40.3 in a dominating effort that should serve as warning to other teams in the race for the P1 million team purse.

“Our goal is to try to win the team event and the rest of the individual awards,” said Reynante, son of former two-time Tour champion Maui, whose biggest effort was a pair of second place efforts in 2004 behind now retired buddy Ryan Tanguilig and 2009 behind David McKann.

American Vinyl coach Renato Dolosa, a former two-time champion who steered Cosack Vodka to the 2006 Tour team title as well as his current squad to the 2009 team winner, said the tour has barely started.

“Most of my cyclists suffered cramps but that usually happens at the start of the Tour,” said the 45-year-old Dolosa.

 one of the best and brilliant coaches in the fold. “They (7-Eleven) the favorites but I think its too early to celebrate because we’re just starting.”

Gorantes, son of former Southeast Asian and Asian medalist Ernesto, rode under varying conditions--hot and cold weather in the morning and rough and narrow roads--in barely edging American Vinyl’s Ronnel Hualda, who finished in 4:22:56.8 in a mad dash to the finish.

It was the 4th second place stage finish by Hualda, who is already based in Riverside, California but goes home during races just like this one, in the last two years that was good for P25,000.

“I was hoping for my first stage win, maybe I’ll try again later,” said the 29-year-old Hualda, whose first three runner-up stage finishes all came in 2009.

Cebu’s Jay Bop Pagnanawon, a 23-year-old racer who is the son of 1986 Tour winner Rolando who happens to coach him the Cebu squad, likewise made heads turn by copping third place in this leg in 4:22:57.3.

“I thank God and the team for giving me the chance to do this, this is my best finish in a race as big as this,” said Pagnanawon. “I hope I made father proud because I want to be a champion like him someday.”

Gorantes will wear LBC’s color red, instead of the traditional yellow jersey when the Tour resumes with the second stage, a 214km leg that wound unfurl in Dumaguete City in Negros Oriental, pass through the sugar plantations of Negros Occidental before ending in Silay City, on Monday.

Southern Tagalog’s Emelito Atilano and American Vinyl’s Rudy Roque surged ahead of the pack in the pair of ascents in the Sayre Highway, a 100-mile road that links Northern with Southern Mindanao, or midway through the leg.

But both Atilano and Roque faded on the downhill path as Bicol pride Alvin Benosa zoom to the lead approaching the flat roads of Fortich street of the Manolo Fortich town of Malaybalay.

Benosa’s 30-second lead though was quickly vanished as a 15-man pack headed by Reynante caught up with him in the final 60km stretch as they braved through the narrow, populated road of this city known as the South’s summer captital of the Phl.

And then Reynante and teammates Irish Valenzuela, Sherwin Carrera and Ericson Obosa seized control in the last 30km to show 7-11’s preparedness following its third place finish in the Tour de Brunei last month.

But American Vinyl’s skipper Cris Joven and Roque and East Pangasinan’s 1-2 punch Santy Barnachea and Baler Ravina just hung tough enough to breathe down the leaders’ necks in the final 18km.

And in then the new guns made their move to clinch podium finishes.

LBC Ronda notes: The whole LBC Ronda contingent took an 11-hour ferry ride from Cagayan de Oro to Dumaguete City last night and will take the whole day off today...Organizers decided to put international flavor on the event by tapping foreign race officials--Technical director Jamaludin Mahmoud, a former Asia Tour advisor and Tour de Langkawi consultant, President Commisaire Martin Bruin, ex many-time chief referee of the Tour de France and commisaire 2 Hendrikus Van der Linden, a Tour de France commissaire...Some stretches of unpaved and rough roads in the uphill climbs of Sayre Highway in this mountain top province with an average altitude of 622 meters above sea level...