Oranza, Navy riders gird for foes’ assault

MEMBERS of the Navy-Standard Insurance squad show their readiness to come to each other’s help before yesterday’s practice ride in Iloilo City. ROMY HOMILLADA

ILOILO CITY—After a pair of high-velocity criterium races, the real challenge of road racing begins today in the Visayas leg of the 2016 LBC Ronda Pilipinas.

Red-jersey holder Ronald Oranza and the Philippine Navy-Standard Insurance squad of veteran riders are determined to keep the enemy at bay in the gruelling 122.35-kilometer test that will be fired off here and end in Roxas City.

Oranza retained the overall general classification lead after finishing on the podium together with teammates Rudy Roque and Jan Paul Morales during Sunday’s second stage over flat roads around the Megaworld complex here.

“Our goal is to protect the lead again and we can achieve that by working together,” said Oranza.

For topping Stage 2, Roque tied Oranza with 28 points but remained in second place in the overall clocking, a split-second off Oranza.

Morales, the Mindanao leg winner, rose from seventh to third with 16 points together with Ronald Lomotos of Team LBC-MVP. Rustom Lim, Team LBC’s sprint specialist, lay fifth with 13 points.

The riders will negotiate rolling terrain going to Roxas City with Lomotos, Lim and Julius Mark Bonzo aiming to break the stronghold of the Navymen together with fellow Team LBC riders Jerry Aquino Jr. and George Oconer, last year’s Ronda second-placer.

Also ready to lend their support to Oranza are Navy’s Joel Calderon, the 2009 Le Tour champion, siblings El Joshua and Daniel Ven Cariño and skipper Lloyd Lucien Reynante.

Overall, Bonzo lay sixth with 10 points, El Joshua Cariño and Daniel were seventh and eighth with 10 and eight, respectively, followed by Calderon and Reynante, with seven points each.

Stage 4 on Thursday is an individual time trial, also in Roxas City.

The five-stage Tour, organized by LBC Express and backed by MVP Sports Foundation, Versa Radio-Tech 1, Maynilad and NLEX, ends with a criterium.

The field was reduced to 30 riders after Dennis Nebres, who figured in a late-stage crash in Stage 1, James Paolo Ferfas, Nelben Villafuerte and Yadu Salvacion bombed out of the race.