Spaniard recalls old form, rules Ronda stage 1

ILOILO CITY, Philippines — The glory days of Tour de France vet Francisco Mancebo Perez may have been long over. But the 42-year-old Spaniard showed there is still some fight left in him.

And Mancebo, whose best Tour de France finish was fourth in 2005, made sure everyone noticed after a dominant effort yesterday in Stage One of the LBC Ronda Pilipinas 2019 that started at the Iloilo City Hall and ended at the Megaworld Festive Walk Mall here.

Representing Matrix Powertag Japan, Mancebo clocked five hours, seven minutes and two-tenths of a second to claim the win in the 197.6-kilometer stage and the respect of the field participated in by 15 local and foreign teams of six riders.

The country’s best bet, reigning Ronda king Ronald Oranza of Navy-Standard Insurance, edged Dominic Perez of 7-Eleven Cliqq-Air21 by Roadbike Phls for second place as the two came in 3:52 minutes behind Mancebo.

“I feel so good today (yesterday). My plan at the start was to stay along and didn’t really expected much. But I did it,” said Mancebo.

Navy-Standard’s Jan Paul Morales, the back-to-back winner of Ronda in 2016 and 2017, got into the mix early and finished fourth (4:32 behind) while another Matrix bet Junya Sano (4:40) and Korail Korea’s Joo Daeyeong (4:51) ended up fourth and fifth, respectively.

At sixth to 10th places were 7-Eleven’s Irish Valenzuela (5:07), Army-Bicycology’s Mark Julous Bordeos (5:07), 7-Eleven’s Rustom Lim (5:18) and Go for Gold’s Ismael Grospe (6:30).

Navy-Standard’s El Joshua Carino,  last year’s Le Tour champion, was in the peloton and 17th overall or 6:43 off the pace.