FRANCISCO Mancebo Perez of Matrix Powertag Japan stuck with his closest pursuers in Stage Four in Roxas City to move closer to ruling the LBC Ronda Pilipinas 2019 with still a lap to go.
Perez went toe to toe with defending champion Ronald Oranza of Navy-Standard Insurance and Dominic Perez of 7Eleven Cliqq-Air 21 before finishing with the peloton that is 42 seconds behind Stage 4 winner Jamalidin Novardianto of PGN Road Cycling.
Perez, a Tour de France veteran, kept his hold on the individual general classification lead with a total time of 16:01:21, or 3:52 ahead of Oranza and 3:55 lead over Perez.
Even with an already insurmountable lead, Perez still refused to take for granted the fifth and final stage-a 148.9km lap that will start in Roxas City and end in Pandan, Antique – which is still being played as of press time.
“The last stage will be like today. Everybody will want to take the red jersey from me,” said Perez, who seized the massive lead following his performance in the Iloilo-Iloilo Stage One last Friday.
“I’m a little bit tired. There’s one more stage to go and we’ll try to keep the jersey. I feel good, but you’ll never know; we have to be careful,” added the 42-year-old Spanish rider.
Rounding up the top 10 were Navy’s Jan Paul Morales (4:35 behind); Matrix’s Sano Junya (4:53); Korail Korea’s Joo DaeYeong (4:58); 7Eleven’s Irish Valenzuela (5:20);
Army-Bicycology’s Mark Julius Bordeos (5:20); and 7Eleven’s Rustom Lim and Arjay Peralta (6:13).
After four stages, Perez’s squad had an aggregate time of 48:15:52. But its three-minute lead from the day before was trimmed down to just 2:05 over 7Eleven and 2:49 over Navy./PN
