PANGASINAN’s pride, Jazy Sports/beacon cycling team, is seeing action in Tour of Malaysia this year, not in the revived Tour of Luzon.

The Mangaldan-based six-man provincial riders, better known as the Pitaki Boyz, enplaned to Kuala Lumpur on April 17 to test their mettles anew in international competitions in the eight-day Jelajah Tour of Malaysia 2009 bikathon scheduled on April 19-26.

It will compete against11 squads from three continents led by defending champion Tabriz Petrochemical squad of Iran, skippered by world-rated Ghader Mizbani and Hossein Askari. The local boys are also expected to see tough action against the host Malaysia which is fielding five teams, three from Japan, two each from Indonesia, Iran, and Australia and one each from Qatar, New Zealand, Thailand, Chinese Taipei, People’s Republic of China and the United States of America.

“We chose to race overseas than the Tour of Luzon because it’s high time our local riders are exposed anew to international competitions,” said Jazy Garcia, the team manager.

“If we only race locally, we will remain stagnant and we can’t gauge how our Filipino cyclists fare against some of the best of the world. Remember, we are also competing there against our SEA Games archenemies Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia and this is a good tune-up for us to prepare for the coming Laos SEA Games this year,” he added.

The local squad is composed of Ericson Obosaof Manaoag, Sherwin Carrera of San Fabian, Emilito Atilano of Basista, Renier Clauna of Bugallon, Irish Valenzuela and Renato Sembrano, both from Mangaldan.

The annual bikathon, now on its 45th year and upgraded to Asia “A” classification by the International Cycling Union, is the oldest in Malaysia with RM280,000.00 in prize money, the largest ever in the history of the race. The race starts at Kuala Selangor and will wind up in Kuala Lumpur with a total distance of 1240 kilometers.-JAG,Jr.

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