SPANISH rider Francisco Mancebo Perez of Matrix Powertag Japan formalized his coronation at the close of LBC Ronda Pilipinas 2019 on Tuesday afternoon in Pandan, Antique.
Perez – a Tour de France veteran – bested all the riders, including Filipinos Ronald Oranza of Navy-Standard Insurance and Dominic Perez of 7Eleven Cliqq-Air21 by Roadbike Philippines, to rule the five-day racefest.
The 42-year-old Perez emerged victorious after tallying an aggregate time of 19:26:30 to claim his first title in a multi-stage race since topping the Tour of Egypt four years ago.
“I’m so happy it was over and we won,” said Perez, a fifth place in Tour de France before. “The team, not just myself, worked hard to make this win happen, it was really teamwork.”
Perez stuck with Oranza and Perez almost all throughout the fifth and final stage before winding up at 50th in the 148.9-kilometer stage, or 32 seconds off Stage 5 winner El Joshua Carino of Navy.
Oranza, last year’s Ronda king, wound up second in the overall race and the best Filipino rider after he finished 3:20 behind Perez while the Filipino Perez wound up at third, or just three seconds behind Oranza.
Navy’s Jan Paul Morales ended up fourth while Matrix’s Sano Junya, Korail Korea’s Joo
Daeyeong, 7Eleven’s Irish Valenzuela, Army-Bicycology’s Mark Julius Bordeos, 7Eleven’s Rustom Lim and Navy’s Rudy Roque complete the top 10.
Perez’s Matrix squad also emerged as overall team classification winner with a total clocking of 58:31:36 ahead of 7Eleven (00:12) and Navy (0:56).
Navy’s Junrey Navarra was overall points classification winner, 7Eleven’s George Oconer was the overall mountains classification, and Go for Gold’s Ismael Grospe emerged as the best under-23 rider./PN
