STA. ROSA, Laguna, Philippines – National team mainstay George Oconer Jr. flashed superb sprinting skills to best an elite field and rule the 60km criterium for the early overall lead yesterday in the kickoff stage of the Ronda Pilipinas 2015 around Paseo Greenfield City here yesterday.
Representing PSC and PhilCycling, Oconer, 23, edged 2011 first Ronda king Santy Barnachea and Rudy Roque of Navy-Standard Insurance, Army’s Cris Joven and teammate Rustom Lim in a mad dash to the finish to top the relatively flat race in one hour, 13 minutes, 15 seconds.
Oconer pocketed P15,000 for his feat while posting his first stage triumph since topping the Tuguegarao-Solano lap in the third edition of the annual bikathon two years ago.
More importantly, the victory gave the newly enlisted Air Force man the momentum and the push heading to the 120.5-km Lucena-Antipolo Stage Two set late yesterday.
“It’s been a while since I last won a stage, it feels good,” said Oconer, whose father Norberto was a former two-time Olympian.
He, however, expects the battle to be tougher and harder in the next few days.
“It’s too early, it’s only Stage One,” he said.
Meanwhile, the whole Ronda delegation honored the policemen who died in Mamasapano, Maguindanao clash with “Fallen 44” stickers on their jerseys in Stages 1 and 2.
Roque checked in second while Joven, Lim and Barnachea came in third, fourth and fifth, respectively.
Joven, now representing Army after donning the 7-Eleven uniform in the Luzon and Visayas qualifying legs, moved up to second place overall after gaining points from the two sprint races, dropping Roque to No. 3.
At the end of the stage, Oconer gained 10 seconds that were chopped off from his time and went to Stage Two with a 1:13.05 time, barely leading Joven’s 1:13.07 and Roque’s 1:13.09.
Rounding up the stage’s top 10 were Navy’s Jan Paul Morales, Cebu-VMobile’s Rey Nelson Martin Army’s Marvin Tapic, 7-Eleven’s RJ Perlta and Spanish Edgar Nieto, who all posted identical clockings of 1:15.39.
Ronda tackles today’s 171.1-km Stage Three from the Quezon Provincial Capitol in Lucena to the Rizal Provincial Capitol.