JASON Christie of CCN scored his third stage victory, while Mark Galedo of 7-Eleven stayed on top of the overall standings after the Tarlac to Dagupan stage of the Ronda Pilipinas on Sunday.
Christie completed the 197-kilometer Stage Eight, the longest in the 14-stage race, in four hours, 34 minutes and 42 seconds.
The national sprint champion of New Zealand also won the Quezon City criterium Stage One and the Lucena-Antipolo Stage Six.
The Ronda is part of Christie’s preparations for the Tour de Langkawi in Malaysia later this month.
PLDT-Maynilad's Rustom Lim finished second while Taiwan’s Hsiaoh Shih Hsin of Team Gusto wound up third 22 seconds off Christie.
Galedo finished with the main pack and remained at No. 1 now with a total clocking of 29:24:30. The 7-Eleven rider is 14 seconds ahead of Reimon Lapaza of Cycleline-Butuan Mindanao (29:24:44) and two minutes and 26 seconds ahead of 7-Eleven teammate Mark Julius Bordeos (29:26:56).
Santy Barnachea of Navy-Standard Insurance stayed at No. 4 (29:27:38) followed by Marcelo Felipe of Raodbike Philippines (29:28:26).
Ronald Oranza of PLDT-Maynilad (29:29:15), George Oconer of Navy-Standard (29:29:24), Frenchman Peter Pouly of Ifinite-Singha (29:30:10), Vicmar Vicente of Cebu-Kalit Air Force (29:31:22), and Reynaldo Navarro of Army (29:32:05) rounded out the top 10 riders in the event presented by LBC, sponsored MVP Sports Foundation, Petron, NLEX, Maynilad, PLDT and Mitsubishi, Versa 2 Way Radio and Standard Insurance and minor sponsor Air Asia Zest and C! Magazine, sanctioned by PhilCycling and backed by Shimano Cannondale bikes, the Department of Tourism and Philippine National Police chief Allan Purisima.
Stage Nine is a 102.1-kilometer race to Baguio City.
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