Jan Paul Morales of Excellent Noodles. RONDA PHOTO
ETIVAC, Philippines—Excellent Noodles got the early double in the 2022 Ronda Pilipinas as it logged the fastest time in both the 12.3-kilometer Individual Time Trial Stage One and Team Time Trial Stage Two in Sorsogon City.
Jan Paul Morales, who was the 87th of the 104 cyclists flagged off, registered the fastest time of 16 minutes and two seconds to rule the opening lap that started in Sorsogon’s provincial capitol and ended at Rampeolas Boulevard.
His Stage One exploits earned him the leader’s LBC red jersey for the 59.4km Stage Two in the same area.
Navy Standard Insurance’s Ronald Oranza, a two-time Ronda winner, and Go for Gold’s Ronnilan Quita took the second and third places in Stage One clocking in at 16:16 and 16:18 minutes, respectively.
“I keep saying I give it my everything to win again and I want to prove to our boss Alex Bilian and all our supports that we’re worthy of their support,” said Morales.
Morales thus paced Excellent Noodles to the best finish in the Team Trial Stage Two as they clocked in 1:15:33.
Go for Gold came in second in 1:16:54 while reigning team champion Navy Standard Insurance surprisingly fell to third in 1:17:28.