MANILA, Philippines - With the next Ronda Pilipinas bound to hit the road again in seven months, LPGMA-American Vinyl has already mapped out preparations to reclaim the title it lost this year.
Team owner and LPGMA party-list Rep. Arnel Ty announced that coach Rene Dolosa and his riders would kick off the build-up as early as next week when the team competes in a three-day race in Indonesia.
They narrowly missed retaining the team crown, settling for second overall after finishing the 15-stage race that began in Mindanao, traversed the Visayas and ended up in Luzon in two minutes and 37 seconds behind champion V-Mobile.
They also targeted the individual title but came up short after team captain and individual runnerup Irish Valenzuela failed to erase a 33-second deficit in the penultimate stage from San Fernando, La Union to Tarlac City, allowing Tour champion Mark Galedo to seal the deal.
``Sometimes, things don’t go your way. But our riders, as well as the coaching staff, did their best and we’re proud of them,’’ said Ty, co-owner of the multi-titled club along with cycling figure Eric Sy.
The road was rough for the inaugural team champions, which included Ronda sprint king Cris Joven, Ronnel Hualda, Rudy Roque, Rustom Lim and Edmundo Nicolas, when they began their 21-day odyssey.
LPGMA-American Vinyl plunged to 12th overall out of 16 teams in the opening stage in General Santos City but slowly worked their way back in Luzon one stage at time and struck fear in the hearts of their rivals.
When they came tantalizingly close to grabbing the lead, V-Mobile teamed up with eventual third-placer Philippine Navy/Standard Insurance, Road Bike Philippines and Metro Manila to withstand the challenge.
Valenzuela, who captured his second straight king of the mountain crown, also came out of nowhere. The Tabaco, Albay climber surged from 20th to fourth overall in Stage 9 that ended in Antipolo City before threatening Galedo in the two mountain stages in Baguio City.
Aside from next week’s race in Indonesia, LPGMA-American Vinyl will compete in a series of local races and a couple of overseas stints in the run-up to the third edition of the Ronda Pilipinas set third week of January.