JAN Paul Morales of Navy-Standard dominated the 40-kilometer Individual Time Trial Stage 12 on Thursday to all but put the Ronda Pilipinas title in the bag with two stages to spare.
The 31-year-old Morales finished the stage in Guimaras in one hour, five minutes and 42 seconds, extending his two-minute lead to over nine minutes as teammate Rudy Roque of Navy simply did not have the pace in the time trial.
Morales has a total clocking of 38:40:55.
Roque was far from a podium place for the day, but remained second overall, seven minutes ahead of Cris Joven.
It was Morales’ fifth stage victory after topping the Stage Two criterium in Vigan, Angeles to Subic Stage Three, Pili to Daet Stage Seven and the Stage Nine criterium in Sta. Rosa, Laguna.
Navyman Jay Lampawog wound up second in the ITT in 1:09:13, while Kinetix Lab-Army's Marvin Tapic was third in 1:09:19.
Stage 13 is a 209-km Iloilo-Antique-Iloilo race, while the closing stage is a 50-km criterium in Iloilo City on Saturday.
“I need to ride intelligently and avoid potential problems and I think I can do that,” said Morales.
Joven had the seventh best time of 1:10:54 in the stage.
Rounding out the top 10 were Sepnio (38:55:05), Navy's Daniel Ven Carino (38:59:07), Dimaano (38:59:24), Navy's Lloyd Lucien Reynante (38:59:54), Navy's Ronald Lomotos (39:00:20, Ilocos Sur's Ryan Serapio (39:01:27) and Kinetix Lab-Army's Reynaldo Navarro (39:02:44).