ANTIPOLO CITY—Ageless Santy Barnachea of Navy-Standard Insurance seized the overall lead by finishing second to Baler Ravina of 7-Eleven, even as last year’s champion Reimon Lapaza bowed out of the race due to exhaustion in yesterday’s Stage 3 of the Ronda Pilipinas 2015 presented by LBC that started in Lucena, Quezon and ended at the Provincial Capitol here.
Barnachea, the 2011 Ronda inaugural winner and one of the most seasoned riders here at 38 years old, ended up second to Ravina in the stage, but the two finished with the same clocking of four hours, 35 minutes and 46 seconds, catapulting the former from second after Stage 2 to first overall.
Lapaza lost his bid to defend the crown he won last year after he left the race approaching Luisiana, Laguna due to exhaustion, leaving the rest of the field to fight it out for the top purse worth P1 million.
At the end of the day, Barnachea emerged alone on top after he supplanted PSC-PhilCycling’s George Oconer, Jr., the former LBC red jersey wearer, symbolic of the leader, from the top with an aggregate time of 9:37:00, or a whopping eight minutes ahead of the latter.
Barnachea, who is seeking to become the first cyclist to win in this race, was quick to say that he was just an accidental leader after the 171.1-kilometer stage.
“I wasn’t expecting to be the leader after the race,” said Barnachea, a proud Umingan, Pangasinan, in Filipino. “But when I got the chance, I took it.”
Ravina, one of the best mountain-climbers in the country and who was Le Tour champion three years ago, for his part, took his first ever stage triumph in the annual race and won P30,000.
It also catapulted the Asingan, Pangasinan native from No. 24 the day before to No. 12 overall with a total time of 9:53:04.
But he will need to win more stages to catch with Barnachea, who is a little over 16 minutes ahead.
“One step at a time,” said Ravina.
The 23-year-old Oconer, the 60-km Stage 1 criterium winner at Paseo Greenfield City, was stranded in the peloton and could do nothing to keep up with Barnachea and fell to second in 9:45:00.
Armyman Cris Joven remained at No. 3 in 9:45:29, while another Navyman Ronald Oranza, who reigned supreme in the 120.5-km Calamba-Atimonan Stage Two the day before, was at No. 4 in 9:45:41.
Rounding up the Top 10 were Navy’s Jan Paul Morales (9:47:03), Navy’s Jhon Mark Camingao (9:49.22), Cebu-VMobile’s Rey Nelson Martin (9:52.09), Navy’s Lloyd Lucien Reynante (9:52.12), Army’s Irish Valenzuela (9:52.22) and Cebu-VMobile’s Elmer Navarro (9:52.22).