Why Pangasinan riders lost in Padyak Pinoy

By Jesus A. Garcia Jr.

HOUSTON, Texas- I intended to write this last week but time constraints kept me from doing so. I’m so sorry dear readers.

After a stressful pell-mell at the Padyak Pinoy 8-day bikefest, I’m taking a vacation here in Texas to visit my relatives on my father’s side. (My good and generous friends in Houston, Mr. and Mrs. Blandino Caguioa, hosted me to make this piece).

As I said in my previous column, I would be engaged in this year’s Padyak Pinoy, but not as race director as I reported. It turned out I was just a technical adviser to the chief organizer.

I failed to beat the deadline of The PUNCH last week because out of the blue, a huge mess occurred at the penultimate stage and that caused me anxiety. It was a confusing seventh stage that started in Vigan City and ended in La Trinidad, Benguet with some 36 kilometers of mountainous and treacherous trek, that turned out to be the most controversial leg during the 8-day road battle. Unexpectedly, the controversy involved our top four local cyclists, namely: Baler Ravina of Asingan, Arnel Quirimit of Pozorrubio, Merculio Ramos, Jr. of Binalonan and Irish Valenzuela of Mangaldan. The race officials headed by race director Modesto Bonzo and race manager Paquito Rivas said the four took the wrong route.

I was there at the height of the discussions. My findings show that it was these charlatans, the ‘great pretender’ race officials, who committed the big gaffe but refused to accept their mistake. The truth was it was those two stubborn officials who committed the blunder that tarnished the integrity of the race. The two did a Pontius Pilate in spite of what the ‘route map’ in the souvenir program clearly showed and the arrow sign installed at the Irisan junction.

Bonzo, the 1976 Tour of Luzon champion from Sual nicknamed ‘Hapon’ by his co-cyclists, was the most hypocritical of the two. He even had the gall to announce at the starting line prior to the eighth and final stage, with hundreds of spectators around, the controversy and blamed the Pangasinan cyclists when it was his and Rivas’ mistake. What arrogance!

That stunned the participants from Pangasinan and the audience, and silently cursed the guy.

My assistance and clarifications to the race officials and the formal protest made by the Columbia team skippered by Quirimit all went to the trash.

I found out that the two officials were also tyrants as far as cycling are concerned. The Pangasinan riders lost twice in this year’s Padyak Pinoy race, similarly during the April 13-19 2009 Tour of Luzon, that the two also managed.

What more can I say about these two fellows?

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