Sports Eye
Magnificent seven navy men
By Jesus A. Garcia Jr.
AFTER five days of tough road battle, the eight-man Philippine Navy/Standard Insurance (PNSI) squad surprisingly sprung out to dominating the 4th and 5th stages of the 10-day Ronda Pilipinas bikathon and captured the individual and team leadership after more than 700 kilometers of road racing in southern and central part of Luzon.
Running second overall in the team standing, the PNSI trio of Junrey Navarra, Joshua Carino and Ronald Lomotos orchestrated a three-man lead group in the fourth stage’s lung-busting 206 kilometers Daet, Camarines Norte – Lucena City, Quezon. They fashioned out a 1-2-3 finish with Lomotos of San Felipe, Zambales, Navarra of Mindanao and my town mate, the 2018 Le Tour de Filipinas winner Cariño of Mangaldan, respectively, to wrest the leadership from the former champion, 7-11 squad.
With a lot of strength to spare, PNSI’s Oranza engineered an all PNSI six-man breakaway group in the outskirts of the starting point in Lucena City and sustained a blistering surge up to the Antipolo City finish in the fifth stage with Marikina City ace John Mark Camingao outsprinting his five partners in the last 100 meters to win the 128 kilometers flat and mountain trek. It was his first ever after many tries.
The 2018 Ronda champ Oranza came in second, Navarra third, Cariño fourth, Lomotos fifth and Oconer sixth. The team’s effort enabled Oconer to seize the overall individual leadership from Laoac, Pangasinan son Mark Julius Bordeos. Their teammate, two-time Ronda king Jan Paul Morales, was the best in the second group to finish seventh, 4:30 minutes off the pace for a 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 PNSI stupendous finish. Oconer led teammate Oranza by just 1:30 minutes in the overall standing. The PNSI also augmented its team leadership against second running Go for Gold by 23.40 minutes. Notably, the top six of the fifth stage also occupied the top six in the overall classification.
I was not there to watch the 10-day bikefest personally but I followed the wheel-by-wheel live account through Facebook from day one to day five. It’s really my habit to follow the live coverage of my three favorite sports (cycling, boxing, basketball) through radio or through television. But what amazed me last Thursday was the total dominance of the Navy men that shocked us all Filipino cycling enthusiasts. The 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 finish of the Navy men was the first ever to happen in Philippine multi-stage cycling racing since its birth in 1955. The best that Pangasinan team accomplished was a 1-2-3 finish by in the 1963 Tour of Luzon Baguio City – Bangued, Abra stage done by the trio of Bienvenido Bongato of Mapandan, Teofilo Cuison of Dagupan and Felipe Alvarez of Basista. That feat was duplicated in the 1977 Tour of PICCA (Philippine Industrial Commercial Cycling Association) with the former Tour winners Cariño brothers Ruben and Samson and this writer dominating the Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya – Urdaneta City stage.
Five days were done and five days more to go and for sure a major revamp will happen in the individual overall classification after the two Baguio City stages. Being a former champ of this two wheeled event, I’m predicting that one of the top six riders in the overall standing after the fifth stage will surely emerge as the new champion in this year’s Ronda. The team competition is now in the bag for the PNSI squad. That’s my fearless forecast.
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK: And Jesus Christ said, “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses. MARK 11: 25-26
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