LBC Ronda Pilipinas: Calderon tops nat’l trials for cycling’s biggest event

MANILA, Philippines - Veteran Joel Calderon led a field of 93 aspirants that qualified over the weekend for the 2013 LBC Ronda Pilipinas, making him one of the favorites in the third staging of the country’s biggest, richest cycling tour of the country’s three major islands.

Calderon registered an aggregate clocking of four hours, 54 minutes, 28.6 seconds in the two-day national trials that started with a 175 km massed start last Saturday and a 31.5 km individual time trial Sunday in Tarlac City.

Calderon completed the trials among an original field of 273 riders one minute, 59 seconds ahead of another veteran, Cris Joven, while John Paul Morales was 2:26.2 at third. Tomas Martinez was 2:28.2 behind, while George Oconer was fifth, 2:44.6 off the pace.

Rounding up the top 10 are Daniel Asto (3:.06 behind), Francisco Ramos (3:29.0),  Rey Martin (3:31.8), Mark Julius Bonzo (3:55.0) and Rudy Roque (4:16.7).

The top 10 and the next 83 riders will join last year’s top 3 finishers – Mark Galedo, Iris Valenzuela and Lloyd Lucien Reynante – in the 96-man roster that will form the 16 teams for next year’s 16-stage tour set Jan . 12-Feb.1 through key cities of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

With a total prize of P7.5 million, and the champion getting the lion’s share of P1M, the third edition, staged by LBC Express, Inc., the leading courier firm, is expected to bring out the best among the elite riders, a mix of veteran and young, upcoming cyclists who passed the grueling trials for cycling’s biggest event which starts Jan. 12 in Zamboanga City and ends Feb. 1 in Baguio.

Other noted riders in the fold are Merculio Ramos (20th), Santy Barnachea (23rd), Ryan Tanguilig (61st), Bernard Luzon (69th)), Warrren Davadilla (80th) and Alfie Catalan (90th).

Of the initial list of 273 riders in the 175.5 km massed start, from the Tarlac Provincial Capitol to the Monasterio de Tarlac, 162 qualified for the final qualifying phase, a 31.7-km individual time trial starting and ending at the Tarlac Recreational Park.

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