RONDA PILIPINAS: Ronald Gorantes clinches Stage 1

MALAYBALAY CITY— Longtime national team member Ronald Gorantes of Negros bolted from the lead pack to arrive solo in the finish line and capture Stage 1 of the 2011 LBC Ronda Pilipinas that began in Cagayan de Oro City and ended in this cool, mountaintop city Saturday.

At 29, Gorantes has won a bronze for the Philippines in the Southeast Asian Games in 2007, but ruling the 156.5-kilometer initial leg of the 12-stage race was, according to him, his sweetest victory so far. It came with a P50,000 prize.

“Every cyclist wanted to win a stage, all I wanted was to stay with the lead pack but I found a chance to win it so I took it,” said Gorantes in Filipino. He is a son of former national cyclist Ernesto, who is now an engineer.

Gorantes won a stage in the 2003 edition and was adjudged Eagle of the Mountain.

With four riders from the vaunted 7-11 team hounding him, the Airman First Class barreled all alone into the finish line after four hours, 22 minutes and 49.8 seconds.

Ronnel Hualda of American Vinyl/LPGMA came in seven seconds later to take second place, while Jay Bop Pagnanawon of Cebu, son of 1986 champion Rolando Pagnanawon, finished third sharing Hualda’s time.

Team 7-11, skippered by another son of a former champion, Lloyd Lucien Reynante, and sporting identical dye-blonde hair, led the team race, which also stakes P1 million.

The King of the Mountain of the recent Tour le Brunei and 9th individual overall, Reynante kept the pace in the 15-man lead pack that formed right after three cliff-side climbs to this city which sits 680 meters above sea level.

“We managed to follow our game plan which is to get the team overall, KOM and the sprints,” said Reynante, whose 7-11 team, formed two years ago, finished third overall in Seri Begawan two weeks ago.

Reynante checked in 20 seconds off Gorantes. Teammate Sherwin Carrera was 8th in the stage (9.40 seconds off the pace), while Irish Valenzuela and Mark John Galedo finished 10th (14.2 behind) and 16th (2:50), respectively.

Southern Tagalog’s Emelito Atilano was at the helm before the first of the winding climbs near Barangay Kalasag that was supposed to replace Tatlong Eme in Quezon and Bitukang Manok in Camarines Norte, which were not part of the itinerary this year.

Gorantes, father of two kids aged five and two, will start Monday’s Stage 2 wearing the red jersey, which the sponsoring LBC preferred over the traditional yellow.

The Tour caravan was to take an 11-hour ferry ride from Cagayan de Oro to Dumaguete Saturday evening.