Lucena—This time around, teamwork prevailed and worked wonders for Philippine Navy-Standard Insurance.
Ronald Lomotos redeemed himself as he led the Navymen to a 1-2-3 finish in a long and tough Stage 4 challenge.
He benefitted from a cooperative effort by the Navymen when they reached the steep 2.7-kilometer Tatlong Eme route in Atimonan, Quezon to claim his best finish in three years yesterday in the 205.5-kilometer fourth day of the LBC Ronda Pilipinas 10th Anniversary race.
The 25-year-old Lomotos arrived at the rolling terrain of the Maharlika Highway finish line together with teammates Junrey Navarra and El Joshua Carino, submitting similar times of four hours, 56 minutes and 28 minutes.
It was a day of success for the Navymen after teammate Jan Paul Morales took the sprint stage and Carino settled for the King of the Mountain plum to go with stage team honors, which they got after another day of continuous skirmishes with team 7Eleven-Cliqq-Air21 riders
Because of this, the Navymen vaulted to the overall team classification lead.
“Pambawi ko ito. Down na kasi ang pangalan ko,” said Lomotos, who erased memories of a bad outing in Stage 8 back in 2018 when he was disqualified for drafting.
Navymen Ronald Oranza and George Oconer kept themselves busy in an 18-man second group, and were behind by one minute and three seconds when they reached the finish line.
The race was a chase along a combination of flat and mountainous terrain from Daet, Camarines Norte, to Lucena, Quezon.
The riders stayed far behind until the last 26 kilometers and stuck with a five-man lead group, which included 7Eleven riders James Mendoza and Nichol Pareja, and Nueva Ecija’s Arjay Peralta.
Showing formidable form on mountainous terrain, the Navymen slowly kept their distance from Mendoza, Pareja and Tugawin as they pushed towards the summit of the 235-meter Eme route.
With 19.6 kilometers left, the Navymen took control of the race as they headed downhill, with Carino, Navarra and Lomotos taking the KOM honors with a 1-2-3 finish.
“Ito na ang pagkakaton kong makabawi. Sabi ko sa mga kasama ko na nating bitawan ito. Baka wala nang iba pang pagkakataon sa susunod,” added Lomotos, who started joining back in 2014.
Morales, along with Oranza, held Peralta in check in the sprint stage at the 111.8-km mark.
Overall, Philippine Army’s Mark Bordeos still kept the red jersey of individual leadership after staying with the main peloton for the fourth day.
He now has a six-second lead over Oconer, who vaulted to second, from fourth spot.
Oconer is now is a tie with 7Eleven rider Rustom Lim, who finished seventh in the stage.
The Navymen now lead the overall team standings, with 7Eleven trailing by 2:49, and with the Armymen in third.
Stage 5 will take riders in a 128.5-km journey from Lucena to Antipolo City.
The overall individual champion will take a cash prize of P1 million, while the team winner will get P200,000.
