TWO-time champion Jan Paul Morales claimed his second straight stage victory even as George Oconer tightened his grip on the overall lead in after Stage Seven of the LBC Ronda Pilipinas 10th anniversary race on Sunday.
Morales, a 34-year-old Standard Insurance-Navy rider and Ronda winner in 2016 and 2017, outsprinted Dominic Perez of Bicycology-Army and Rustom Lim of 7Eleven Cliqq-Air21 by Roadbike Philippines in Palayan City, Nueva Ecija.
Oconer was also in the group that finished the 116.6-kilometer race from Tarlac in two hours, 35 minutes and 20 seconds, keeping his lead in the individual general classification with an aggregate clocking of 23:04:31.
Morales, who won Stage Six in Tarlac, remained on top of the sprint classification in the 10-stage race presented by LBC and supported by the Manny V. Pangilinan Sports Foundation.
The 28-year-old Oconer will thus wear the red jersey for the third straight day in the 170-km Stage Eight where they will tackle the dreaded Baguio ascent.
“We will know tomorrow after the Baguio stage if we will keep the lead or not because the climb is really long and stiff,” said Oconer, the 2015 runner up who is seeking his first title.
“We were just told there was a 7Eleven rider there so I just went for it, good thing I won,” said Morales.
Oranza, the 2018 Ronda king, is running second overall at 23:05:46, followed by Ronald Lomotos at 23:05:49, John Mark Camingao at 23:06:24, Junrey Navarra at 23:06:48, El Joshua Carino at 23:08:22, Mark Julius Bordeos (23:09:45), Lim (23:09:47), Jonel Carcueva (23:09:59) and Ismael Grospe, Jr. (23:10:19).
Standard have also virtually clinched the team title with a 92:18:09 clocking, followed by Go for Gold (92:41:49) and Bicycology (92:43:28) in the event backed by Palayan, Nueva Ecija, Versa, 8A Performance, Print2Go, Petron, Green Planet, Bike Xtreme, Standard Insurance, Spyder, CCN, Lightwater, Prolite, Guerciotti, Black Mamba, Boy Kanin, Vitamin Boost, NLEX-SCTEX, Maynilad, 3Q Sports Event Management Inc., LBC Foundation and PhilCycling.
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