Sports Eye
Barnachea raced against all odds
By Jesus A. Garcia Jr.
SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA—I followed the 2015 Ronda Pilipinas here in this cool and sunny city through its website from day one to eight to the final stage. Fortunately, unlike last year, our local bets this time performed impressively winning four of the eight stages by Tour veteran the Umingan born Santy Barnachea.
This is Barnachea’s fourth title in national multi-stage bicycle road racing breaking the three-time championship record of this writer and the late legendary Manuel Reynante. He won his first tiara in 2002 Tour of Calabarzon, then 2006 Padyak Pinoy, the inaugural 2011 Ronda Pilipinas and now the just concluded Ronda. At 38 years of age, nobody (maybe except his family) thought he could still win another major race because of his age.
Well, he accomplished what the others could not accomplish and became the oldest Filipino cyclist to win a Tour breaking the feat of province-mate Mamerto Eden of Mapandan winning the fabled 1958 Tour of Luzon at 35. Yes, he’s like wine, the older the wine, the better it gets. He’s also one of four cyclists to win the diadem without winning a stage, next to Gonzalo Recodos in 1963 Tour of Luzon, this writer in 1977 Tour of PICCA and Paquito Rivas in 1979 Marlboro Tour. And he’s the only rider (so far) to win the Ronda twice bucking the odds. In fact before the 2014 Ronda I was one of the many who said that Barnachea’s probability to win the title again was practically nil because of his age. Well, at least I was right last year but I was wrong this time like may others. Maybe it turned out to be a challenge for him when he heard what we said through the paper and in the radio and that motivated him to train harder and be more disciplined rider to win a whopping 1M and the crown.
Barnachea who is my wedding godson together with Engr. Fidel Ginez and Punch colleague Al S. Mendoza when she married Michelle said he’ll try one more time before finally retiring and determined to defend his title next year. Good idea.
Three of his province mates also performed well. Urdaneta City ace Ronald Oranza won second and last stages to finish 4th overall while Asingan son Baler Ravina ruled the third stage and landed sixth overall. Joshua Carino of Mangaldan checked in ninth overall and Santo Tomas’ upcoming cyclist Dominique Perez, in his second Ronda try, did not disappoint his province mates by finishing first during the Tarlac City-Dagupan City fifth stage to the delight of cycling-crazy Pangasinenses at the finish line.
This is one of the best performances of our local riders in multi-stage racing and hopefully this will be repeated in the years ahead. This is our sport that already brought 23 crowns for our province. Viva Barnachea again, and Viva Pangasinan.
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My son Jazy called me the other day to inform me that a five-day basketball tournament will be held in my town Mangaldan on March 4-8, sponsored by LBS Company of Lito B. Soriano, during the fiesta celebration. It will feature the college teams of University of Luzon Golden Tigers, Lyceum Northwestern University Dukes, University of Pangasinan PHINMA Flames and a Mangaldan Selection.
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK: Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment.” And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ MATTHEW 22: 35-39
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