Galedo claims P1 million crown in LBC Ronda Pilipinas

MANILA, Philippines - Road Bike’s Mark Galedo turned the 15th and final stage of the second LBC Ronda Pilipinas into a victory ride, fending off American Vinyl-LPGMA’s Irish Valenzuela’s last stand to crown himself the second millionaire champion before a big crowd at the Luneta Grandstand yesterday.

Galedo, who never relinquished the lead he had seized in the Lucena-Antipolo Stage Nine, ended up finishing in the eight-man fourth group that checked in tied at 22nd in the 60-km criterium with clockings of one hour, 42 minutes.

Valenzuela, who wound up the King of the Mountain for the second straight year of the event sponsored by LBC Phils. Inc., finished four seconds ahead of Galedo, 26, as he came in the 18-man bunch in 1:41.56 but it proved not enough to prevent Galedo from emerging the new Ronda king.

After 15 tough, grueling laps, excluding the team time trial or the prologue in Sarangani Province, spread through more than 2,200kms in 21 days of paved and rough roads toughened up by killer ascents in scorching heat, strong winds and rains, Galedo wrapped it all up with a total time of 50:53.58.

Valenzuela did everything possible to topple Galedo but ended up short by 29 seconds, settling for second with a time of 50:54.27 in one of the closest races in the history of the tour.

After receiving the replica of the P1 million check and the trophy, Galedo did the customary champagne-popping rites and then hugged his girlfriend, Garce Alon, on the podium.

“I will use some of the money I won in funding my bike business and the rest to be used for our wedding this December,” said Galedo in Filipino.

Galedo, who won the 2009 Liquigaz-LPGMA Tour of Luzon, thus duplicated last year’s first Ronda champion Santy Barnachea’s feat of clinching the crown without winning a single lap.

Valenzuela took P500,000 plus some category prizes amounting to a little more than P200,000.

“Finishing second is not that bad, it still feels like I won the Ronda because he (Galedo) beat me by only a few seconds,” said Valenzuela. “I’ll try again next year and hopefully, with God’s will, I’ll get it.”

Navy A-Standard’s Lloyd Lucien Reynante finished third overall in 50:58.07 and pocketed P250,000.

“To tell you honestly, I tried to win my first Tour this year but Mark and Irish were just the better riders,” said Reynante, a former teammate of Galedo and Valenzuela at 7-Eleven in last year’s Ronda inaugurals.

Rounding up the top 10 were Nueva Ecija’s Oscar Rindole (50:59.58), American Vinyl-LPGMA’s Cris Joven (51:00.15), Road Bike’s Baler Ravina (51:02.44), Nueva Ecija’s Joel Calderon (51:03.23), East Pangasinan’s Harvey Sicam (51:03.27), Army-RC Cola’s John Rene Mier (51:05.07) and Nueva Ecija’s Rey Martin (51:06.42), who received P125,000, P100,000, P90,000, P80,000, P70,000, P60,000 and P50,000, respectively.

Nueva Ecija, meanwhile, nailed the team title with a total cumulative time of 151:59.24, which was also worth P1 million courtesy of LBC Express, Inc. headed by Dino Araneta, who announced the third Ronda will hit the road again on the third week of January with some new destinations like Cotabato and Cebu.

Six-footer Alfie Catalan of Army-RC Cola ruled the final stage with a dominating performance, besting Calderon and American Vinyl-LPGMA’s Rudy Roque with a clocking of 1:41.26.

The 19-year-old Roque edged the more seasoned Calderon with a 1:41.50 clocking but race commissaires stripped him of second place for dangerous riding and cutting the latter’s racing line just a few meters from the finish line in front of the Rizal monument. 

Calderon, third placer last year and winner of the Lingayen-Baguio leg, was awarded second place while Roque was relegated to third place instead.

Mentored by two-time tour winner Renato Dolosa, American Vinyl-LPGMA this time finished second with 152:02.02 ahead of Navy A-Standard (152:02.02), Road Bike (152:14.25), One Tarlac (152:15.36), Metro Manila (152:21.56), Army-RC Cola (152:38.34), West Central Pangasinan (152:38.01), Mindanao (152:49.48) and East Pangasinan (153:12.47).

The second to 10th placers in the team category got P500,000, P250,000, P100,000, P90,000, P80,000, P75,000, P70,000, P65,000 and P60,000, respectively.