Oranza sustains fiery ride to rule Ronda Stage 2

ANTIPOLO, Philippines – Ronald Oranza underscored his readiness for the Ronda Pilipinas 2015 presented by LBC, putting up another superb performance to rule the 102.7km Stage Two here yesterday and complete a sweep of the Luzon qualifiers.

After a dominant run in Stage One in Tarlac where he nearly swept all the lap prizes, the 22-year-old Oranza reasserted his mastery of the field and turned in a two-hour, 34.41-second clocking as the top Navy-Standard Insurance bet swept the Luzon elims with an impressive aggregate time of 6:06.42.

He finished ahead of teammates Jan Paul Morales and Santy Barnachea, the 2011 inaugural Ronda champion.

Morales, a silver medal winner in the Asian Cycling Championship in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand last week, ended up second overall in 6:07.22 while the veteran Barnachea wound up third in 6:07.58.

Oranza will thus go into the much-awaited championship round slated Feb. 22-27 from Paseo Greenfield City in Sta. Rosa, Laguna to Baguio as he goes up with fancied Reimon Lapaza, last year’s overall champion, and Mark Galedo, the 2012 titlist.

“If things fall into place, I’ll have a strong chance to win it all this year,” said Oranza, from Villasis, Pangasinan who is a consistent top 10 finisher but never a winner.

He also took the King of the Mountain and sprint king honors.

For his feats, Oranza pocketed a total of cash purse of P123,000, including P50,000 for topping the two-leg elims, P20,000 for emerging the KOM and sprint winner and an extra P3,000 for his intermediate sprint win in the first day.

Oranza, Morales and Barnachea along with 30-plus riders will thus join the Boots Ryan Cayubit-led Visayas qualifiers, Lapaza, Galedo and a composite European team in the main event.

Another rider to watch is Barnachea, who trained the last five months in Olongapo and Baguio in a bid to gain another crack at the coveted crown.

“We’ve trained hard almost everyday for five months in Olongapo and Baguio. And it’s starting to pay off,” said Barnachea.

While he sees Oranza and himself as legitimate contenders, Barnachea believes Galedo remains the rider to beat.

Meanwhile, Ronda takes a four-day breather before resuming Sunday with two stages, one a 60-km criterium that will go around Greenfield City in Sta. Rosa, Laguna in the morning and another a 120.5-km lap from Calamba to the Quezon National Park or Tatlong Eme (Three Ms) or Bitukang Manok (Chicken Intestine) in Atimonan, Quezon in the afternoon.

The race is presented by LBC and supported by major sponsors the Manny V. Pangilinan Sports Foundation, Petron and Mitsubishi and minor sponors Cannondale, Standard Insurance, Tech1 Corp., Maynilad and NLEX and sanctioned by PhilCycling under Cavite Congressman Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino with TV5 and Sports Radio as media partners.

For updates, check Ronda Pilipinas’ official Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/RondaPilipinas, and Twitter account, @rondapilipinas.