Team Navy rules Stage 8, claims team crown

TARLAC, Philippines — Dominant in the individual race, Navy-Standard Insurance also continued to stamp its class in team play, topping the Stage Eight Team Time Trial yesterday to pull away in Ronda Pilipinas 2018 presented by LBC at the Tarlac Recreational Park here.

Spearheaded by overall leader Ronald Oranza and reigning back-to-back champion Jan Paul Morales, the Navymen clocked 56.17 minutes to rule the 42.1km lap with the Jay Lampawog-led Go for Gold Developmental team and a Cris Joven-paced Army-Bicycology finishing second and third in 59.11 and 1:00:10, respectively.

After eight grueling stages, Navy has assembled an aggregate time of 82:19:52, a whopping 32.32 minutes ahead of Go for Gold Developmental team, which has 82:52:24, heading to the last four legs of the annual bikathon presented by LBC.

Army-Bicycology, a team backed by former Olympian swimmer, Phl Sports Commission and Games and Amusement and Board chairman Eric Buhain, has pooled an 83:10:47 clocking for third in race supported by the MVP Sports Foundation, Filinvest, Philippine Rabbit, CCN, Petron, Versa.ph, 3Q Sports Event Management, Inc., Boy Kanin, Franzia, Standard Insurance, Bike Xtreme, SH+, Guerciotti, Prolite, Green Planet, Maynilad, NLEX Sports, Lightwater, LBC Foundation and PhilCycling.

With the huge lead, Navy team skipper Morales, 32, said the overall team championship has been secured.

“I think, the team crown is already ours,” said Morales.

Go for Gold Developmental team coach Eds Hualda agrees.

“Clearly, they’re a class above everyone else,” said Hualda referring to Navy. “We’re just happy we have a good chance of placing second despite us having a young team.”

Navy’s stage triumph was actually marred by the disqualification of member Ronald Lomotos in the Stage Seven Individual Time Trial the day before for drafting, while John Mark Camingao, last year’s runner-up Rudy Roque and El Joshua Carino all lagged behind.

That left Oranza, Morales, three-time Ronda King of the Mountain winner Junrey Navarra and Archie Cardana to carry the load for the team.

The four, however, proved more than enough to all but wrap up the team championship.

“Since the fourth rider’s time will count, we had to drag Cardana in the final stretch and we’re happy we managed to get the stage win,” said Morales.

The race, which stakes P1 million to the individual champion, will take a three-day rest with action to resume on Thursday with the 207.2km Silang-Tagaytay Stage Nine.

The next will be the 147.8km Tagaytay-Calaca Stage 10 Friday to be followed by the 92.72km Calaca-Calaca Stage 11 Saturday and the concluding Stage 12 Filinvest criterium on Palm Sunday.