ANTIPOLO CITY-- Like wine, Santy Barnachea gets better with age.
Mustering the same strength and willpower of his inagural 2011 reign, the ageless Barnachea snatched the solo lead from George Oconer, Jr. by taking a second place finish to Baler Ravina in the 171.1-kilometer Stage Three of the Ronda Pilipinas 2015 presented by LBC that started in Lucena and ended in front of the Provinical Capitol here on Monday.
Barnachea, one of the most seasoned cyclists here at age 38 years old, stuck with Ravina like a leach approaching the Sierra Madre mountain ranges and never lost grip as the two checked in at the finish line in four hours and 35.46 minutes with the latter seizing the stage win.
It sent Barnachea from second the day before to the solo lead after three stages with a total time of 9:37:00, or a whopping eight-minute lead over previous leader and Stage One winner Oconer of PSC-PhilCycling with 9:45:00.
"It was a nice feeling being on top again, hopefully I could sustain it," said Barnachea, who hails from Umingan, Pangasinan, in Filipino.
Ravina, a proud son of Asingan, Pangasinan, also gained significantly for topping the stage, his first ever in the biggest and richest race in Asia, as he not only pocketed P30,000 but also carried him from No. 24 to No. 12 in the overall leaderboard with an aggregate clocking of 9:53:04.
And though he's eight minutes off the pace, Ravina, an extra-ordinary mountain climber and the 2012 Le Tour champion, knows he'll have his chances to overhaul his deficit in the mountains of Baguio.
"We'll see in Baguio," said the 32-year-old Ravina.
While Barnachea and Ravina won big, last year's champion Reimon Lapaza of Cycleline-Butuan lost massively after he bowed out of the race appraoching Luisiana, Laguna due to exhaustian.
And Barnachea will have one men less to worry about.
After three stages, Barnachea will wear the red LBC jersey against pursuers headed by Oconer, Army's Cris Joven at No. 3 in 9:45:29 and Navy teammate Ronald Oranza, who reigned supreme in the 120.5-km Calamba-Atimonan Stage Two the day before, at No. 4 in 9:45:41.
Rounding up the top 10 were Navy's Jan Paul Morales (9:47:03), Navy's Jhon Mark Camingao (9:49.22), Cebu-VMobile's Rey Nelson Martin (9:52.09), Navy's Lloyd Lucien Reynante (9:52.12), Army's Irish Valenzuela (9:52.22) and Cebu-VMobile's Elmer Navarro (9:52.22).
Mark Galedo, the 2012 winner and last year's second placer, was surprisingly outside the top 10 and currently at 15th in 9:54:24.
The 29-year-old Galedo though isn't pushing the panic button just yet.
"We'll see in Baguio," said Galedo, a strong climber and individual time trial specialist."
Leading the category races were Morales (Blue Petron sprint), Ravina (Polka dot Mitsunishi KOM), Daniel Ven Carino (17-18 years old) and Camingao (White Standard insurance U-23).
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, NLEX and NLEX Cycling 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.