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Cycling: Past and present Ronda champions to go at it on Sunday

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ABS-CBN News

Five former champions, headed by 2-time winners Jan Paul Morales of Standard Insurance-Navy and Santy Barnachea of Scratch it, and a slew of worthy challengers battle it out for cycling supremacy as the 10-stage LBC Ronda Pilipinas 10th anniversary race unfolds on Sunday in front of the provincial capitol in Sorsogon.Morales, who won it in 2016 and 2017, and Barnachea, the inaugural winner in 2011 who repeated in 2015, will both aim to write history as they seek to become the first 3-time winner of this annual race with a whopping purse worth P1 million for the individual champion alone.“I always aim to win in all the race I join and I’m confident of my chances this year,” said the 34-year-old Morales.Barnachea, 43, for his part, said he would do his best to win in this event. “We’ll know when the race starts but for me, anything can happen in this kind of race,” he said.This year’s edition will be extra special since all but two of the winners in the past 9 editions are joining — Ronald Oranza of Standard Insurance-Navy (2018), Mark Galedo of 7Eleven Cliqq-Air21 by Roadbike Philippines (2012), and Reimon Lapaza of Celeste Cycles PH-Devel Project Pro Team (2014).<ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/02/15/20/cycling-revamped-go-for-gold-to-test-new-blood-in-ronda-pilipinas-race">READ: Revamped Go for Gold to test new blood in Ronda Pilipinas race</a></li></ul>Only Irish Valenzuela (2013) and Francisco Mancebo (2019) are not joining.Also being eyed as legitimate title contenders are former Le Tour champion El Joshua Carino, Junrey Navarra and George Oconer of Standard Insurance, Marcelo Felipe, the best Filipino finisher in last year’s staging, and 7Eleven teammate Rustom Lopez, Ronnel Hualda, Daniel Ven Carino, Ismael Grospe, Jr. and Jonel Carcueva of Go for Gold, Cris Joven, Marvin Tapic and Dominic Perez of Bicycology-Army, and Michael Angelo Ochoa and Warren Bordeos of Bike Xtreme among others.“It’s a wide open race,” said Morales.Meanwhile, LBC Ronda Pilipinas chairman Moe Chulani announced that Stage Six will now be a Tarlac to Tarlac lap on Feb. 29, and Stage Seven Tarlac to Palayan City, Nueva Ecija on March 1, instead of Lingayen-Lingayen and Lingayen-Palayan.The rest are: 137-km Sorsogon-Sorsogon Stage One, 163-km Sorsogon-Legazpi Stage Two on Feb. 24, 126.9-km Legazpi-Naga Stage Three on Feb. 25, 212.5-km Daet-Lucena Stage Four on Feb. 26, 155.4-km Lucena-Antipolo Stage Five on Feb. 27, 177.1-km Nueva Ecija-Baguio Stage Eight on March 2, 176.4-km Pugo, La Union-Vigan Stage Nine on March 3, and Vigan Stage 10 on March 4.“We’re expecting an exciting race because most practically all the country’s top cyclists including most of our past LBC Ronda Pilipinas champions are joining,” said Chulani.<div>For more sports coverage, visit the <a href="http://sports.abs-cbn.com">ABS-CBN Sports website</a>.</div>

Five former champions headed by 2-time winners Jan Paul Morales of Standard Insurance-Navy and Santy Barnachea of Scratch it and a slew of worthy challengers battle it out for cycling supremacy as the 10-stage LBC Ronda Pilipinas 10th anniversary race unfolds on Sunday in front of the provincial capitol in Sorsogon.

Five former champions headed by 2-time winners Jan Paul Morales of Standard Insurance-Navy and Santy Barnachea of Scratch it and a slew of worthy challengers battle it out for cycling supremacy as the 10-stage LBC Ronda Pilipinas 10th anniversary race unfolds on Sunday in front of the provincial capitol in Sorsogon.