Galedo secures tour overall title

BAGUIO , Philippines   â€“ 7-Eleven’s Mark Galedo put on a strong third place finish in the tough Stage 11 to all but wrap up the overall individual crown while Peter Pouly of Infinite-Singha secured the King of the Mountain title with a runner-up feat in the crucial race won by Junrey Navarra of PLDT-Maynilad in Ronda Pilipinas International 2014 yesterday.

The diminutive Navarra upstaged the big guns with an imposing run to rule what had been considered the toughest in this year’s Ronda, a 98.5km race back from San Fernando, La Union to the Green Valley here.

The Tupi, South Cotabato native clocked two hours, 53 minutes, 47 seconds to capture lap honors while Pouly checked in at second in 2:54:30 and Galedo placed third in 2:54:42.

That put Galedo over two minutes ahead of closest pursuer Reimon Lapaza with an aggregate time of 36:46:48 clocking with the Cycleline-Butuan Mindanao bet pooling 36:49:04 heading to the last three stages starting with the Agoo-Clark Stage 12 today.

The penultimate lap will be from Clark to Subic tomorrow while the final lap will be the Marikina criterium Sunday.

With the last three laps posing no real challenge except for a major mechanical breakdown, Galedo is expected to coast along with his rivals till Sunday’s coronation run.

Pouly is four minutes behind Galedo with 36:50:16.

The 36-year-old Pouly, who topped the Dagupan-Baguio Stage 9 Monday, ran away with the KOM plum with 71 points with Galedo piling up 49 points.

“It’s his (Galedo) for the taking,” said Pouly of the battle for the overall individual championship.

“Yes, I can feel the title is mine,” said Galedo, now three laps away from becoming the first two-time winner of the annual race presented by LBC, the country’s biggest cargo and courier company, in Pilipino.

The other riders in the Top 10 are Roadbike’s Marcelo Felipe (36:52:08), Navy-Standard’s George Oconer (36:53:25), PLDT-Maynilad’s Ronald Oranza (36:55:52), Navy-Standard’s Santy Barnachea (36:56:12), PLDT-Maynilad’s Rustom Lim (36:57:50), Army’s Irish Valenzuela (37:00:42) and 7-Eleven’s Mark Julius Bordeos (37:01:30).

Behind Galedo, Cris Joven and former Tour KOM winner Baler Ravina, 7-Eleven also regained the overall lead in the team event with a total time of 110:39:05.