SIEM REAP—Ronald Oranza raced for the second straight but still settled for his second bronze medal in men’s individual road race of cycling on Friday in the 32nd Southeast Asian Games.
With Oranza’s bronze in criterium the other day, Filipino cyclists now has four medals the others a silver and a bronze in mountain bike.
“Just like yesterday [Thursday, criterium], today’s race was just as tough but again, my medal is the result of teamwork with my fellow Filipino riders,” said Oranza, who was also third in criterium on Thursday.
“We followed what our coaches told us and it again worked,” he added.
Oranza was on the wheels of gold medalist Mur Amirull Mazuki of Malaysia and silver medalist Aiman Cahyadi of Indonesia in the sprint finish after the 150.60-km event raced six laps over a 25.10-km flat circuit.
All three submitted identical clocking of three hours, 22 minutes and 50 seconds.
“Thank God, answered prayers,” said an emotional national team coach Reinhard Gorantes. “This is perhaps the best assembled team in years in terms of the riders’ teamwork and adherence to the game plan.”
The men and women road teams as well as the coaching staff were revamped by the PhilCycling in February. Gorantes was retained and added to the coaching staff were Virgilio Espiritu, Alfie Catalan, Marita Lucas and Gerald Valdez.
“The team and the coaches are grateful to Cong. Bambol Tolentino for trusting us,” he added.
Tolentino is the president of PhilCycling and the Philippine Olympic Committee which, along with the Philippine Sports Commission, is supporting Team Philippines’ participation in the games.
The revamped yielded results—from last year’s zero-medal performance in Vietnam, the national road cycling team now has two medals with the women’s road team still racing on Saturday.
Oranza, who’s riding out of the Philippine Navy-Standard Insurance team, drew support from Marcelo Felipe, Rench Michael Bondoc, former SEA Games champion Mark Lexer Galedo and Nichol Pareja—all from 7-Eleven Roadbike Philippines.
Oranza, Marcelo and Bondoc were in the 12-rider lead pack that endured for all six laps until the final lap when only Oranza was left to fight for a medal after Marcelo suffered a rear tire flat inside the final 1.5 kms.
Marcelo finished 15th with Bondoc crossing at 11th place. Galdeo was 26th and Pareja 28th in the main bunch of the event where 38 riders started with six dropping out.
Cycling also got one silver and one bronze medal in mountainbike.