Oranza optimistic on prospect of title defense

Ronald Oranza of Navy-Standard Insurance raises his P1 million check for topping the Ronda Pilipinas 2018 presented by LBC during the awarding ceremony at The Tent in Filinvest, Alabang Sunday night.
Looking at left was runner-up Jan Paul Morales (right) and second runner-up Junrey Navarra, both from Navy.

Fresh from clinching Ronda Pilipinas, Ronald Oranza is already focused on defending his newly-acquired title.

The Villasis native shares in Filipino, "We will try to win it again next year, we will give it our best to make it happen."

He dominated the twelve-stage tour with a time of 34 hours, eleven minutes, and 23 seconds, finishing on the podium on nine of the stages and winning three of them, taking the lead after Stage 2 and never looked back. Runner-up and former champion Jan Paul Morales finished eleven minutes behind. By winning the race, Ronald received PhP 1 million in cash as well as a Boy Kanin franchise worth PhP 300,000 and a Quin Baterna-designed trophy. He also will receive a share of the PhP 150,000 that Navy-Standard Insurance copped in topping the team event.

Oranza shares that they will take a two-week break before resuming training in line with their racing schedule. Among the events they are slated to participate are the Philippine National Games in Cebu next month and the Le Tour in May. In addition, they are to participate in competitions overseas.

Ronda Pilipinas Executive Project Director Moe Chulani says that Dino Araneta is looking at next year's tour taking place down south in Visayas and Mindanao. In fact, Davao is set to open next year's Tour.

This year's edition of Ronda Pilipinas was presented by LBC and supported by MVP Sports Foundation, Filinvest, Philippine Rabbit, CCN, Petron, Versa.ph, 3Q Sports Event Management, Inc., Boy Kanin, Franzia, Standard Insurance, Bike Xtreme, SH+, Guerciotti, Prolite, Green Planet, Maynilad, NLEX Sports, Lightwater, LBC Foundation and PhilCycling.