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Cycling: Ronda Pilipinas field out to dethrone Jan Paul Morales

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ABS-CBN News

Jan Paul Morales&#x27; road to back-to-back titles won&#x27;t be a smooth one that&#x27;s for sure.The Navy-Standard Insurance rider leads a field determined to unseat him as champion when the LBC Ronda Pilipinas unfurls Saturday morning with the 158-kilometer first stage that starts and ends at the Ilocos Sur provincial capitol in Vigan.Cris Joven of Army-Kinetix Lab and Jaybop Pagnanawon of Bike Extreme are two of Morales&#x27; top rivals to watch.Morales, 31, topped two of the three legs last year to emerge the overall champion and should be the man to watch in this 14-stage race that drew participation from 96 cyclists spread out to 12 different teams.&quot;If I can race intelligently, I know I have a strong chance of winning it this year,&quot; said Morales, a native of Calumpang, Marikina.Morales will team up with team captain Lloyd Lucien Reynante, 2009 tour champion Joel Calderon, Rudy Roque, Ronald Lomotos, Jay Lampawog, Daniel Ven Carino and Archie Cardana.Pagnanawon, son of 1986 Tour king Rolando, and Joven, a consistent top finisher from Iriga, Camarines Sur, are expected to go all out for the crown.&quot;Its my dream to win in Ronda because I want to win a race like my father,&quot; said Pagnanawon, who finished second in the Bacolod qualifying race in December last year.Pagnanawon will be backstopped by brother Junvie and cousin Jetley and Mark Julius Bonzo, whose father Romeo and uncle Modesto are former tour champions.Joven is expected to get solid support from skipper Alfie Catalan, Alvin Benosa, Mark Julius Bordeos, Lord Anthony del Rosario, Ronnilan Quita, Marvin Tapic and Reynaldo Navarro.Stage One will start at the heart of Vigan at 8 a.m., head north to Laoag, pass by the iconic Paoay church before returning to the Ilocos Sur capital city.A top purse worth P1 million awaits the champion courtesy of presentor LBC and in partnership with MVP Sports Foundation, Petron, Mitsubishi, Versa.ph, Partas, Maynilad, Standard Insurance, CCN, Bike Xtreme, NLEX, PhilCycling and 3Q Sports Event Management.The other teams seeing action are Ilocus Sur, Mindanao Sultan Kudarat, Iloilo, NCR RC Cola, Tarlac, Neopolitan, South Luzon and Zambales.The main race will continue with the Stage Two criterium in Vigan and will thread through Angeles (Feb. 8), Subic (Feb. 9), Lucena, Quezon (Feb. 12), Pili in Camarines Norte (Feb. 14 and 16), Daet (Feb. 17), Paseo in Sta. Rosa, Laguna (Feb. 19), Tagaytay and Batangas (Feb. 20), Calamba and Antipolo (Feb. 21) before wrapping up with a pair of stages in Iloilo City (March 2, 3 and 4).For more sports coverage, visit the <a href="http://sports.abs-cbn.com/" target="_blank">ABS-CBN Sports website</a>.

Jan Paul Morales' road to back-to-back titles won't be a smooth one that's for sure.

Jan Paul Morales' road to back-to-back titles won't be a smooth one that's for sure.