Sports Eye
Le Tour and the Noynoy bikefest
By Jesus A. Garcia Jr.
BY the time you read this piece, the annual summer bicycle marathon called this year as “Le Tour de Filipinas” would already be in progress. Formerly called Padyak Pinoy that was run for eight days in previous years, it will be done this time in four days, April 17-20, with seven foreign teams participating – Germany, South Africa, Mongolia, Japan, Iran, Hongkong and Taiwan.
Four of our elite Pangasinan riders led by 2003 Tour Pilipinas champion Arnel Quirimit of Pozorrubio, 2006 Padyak Pinoy king Santy Barnachea of Umingan, Baler Ravina of Asingan and Irish Valenzuela of Mapandan will skipper the teams of Air 21, Extra Joss, Team Philippines and American Vinyl, respectively. Also former Tour champions Warren Davadilla, Victor Espiritu and Mark John Guevara are joining the scrappy cast, making up a total of ten local squads with seven riders each. Like the 1997 and 1998 Marlboro Tour, this year’s event will be sanctioned by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), the world governing body of cycling. It will be the first after 12 years.
I believe the foreign riders will meet stiff competitions against our locals. The other enemy of the foreigners is our climate, especially with the heat from the El Nino phenomenon we are encountering now plus the strong humidity. Just the other day, PAGASA said we reached 39 degrees Celsius and I believe the foreign competitors (except Iran) are not used to this level of scorching heat. My gut feel is with the exception of the riders from Iran, this could be the big factor that our local riders have as an advantage in outshining the others, especially in the stages covering Quezon City and SBMA.
Like last year, I will again join the race, not as one of the officials but as one of the consultants under the wings of chief organizer Gary Cayton. During my brief chitchat with him last week, Cayton said there will be no Baguio stage this time. He declined to elaborate. The stages will cover Tagaytay City for the first stage, criterium race in Manila for the second, Quezon City to Subic for the third and within the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority for the fourth and final stag. The race being under the auspices of UCI, huge stage prizes are at stake. Cayton said the stage winner will bag P84,350, second placer pockets P42,000, third earns P21,000, fourth collects P10,500, fifth nets P8,400, sixth to seventh is good for P6,300 each, eight to ninth is worth P4,200 each, and 10th to 20th at P2,100 each.
But let’s wait and see. I could be wrong too. I will most likely write a synopsis of this four-day bikathon next week.
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The second “OO Na, Noynoy Na bikefest” held last April 11 ran smoothly and fine despite four casualties who suffered spills due to ‘road corn’ crash. Highly affected were two of the Zambales riders under Team Kalsada, Jason Bellosillo and Rustom Lim, and also Jayson Garillo of Nueva Ecija. The three sustained shoulder and feet abrasions, but were generally in good physical condition after receiving medical treatment from the nurses stationed in Burnham Park, Baguio City where the finish line was located. (See related story on this page) The race started in Tarlac City with Asahan Mo party-list chairman Jun Omar Ebdane, sponsor of the race, flagging off the 73 contestants. He was assisted by Tarlac City Sports.
The 224-kilometers road battle was a good tune-up race for our local riders for the coming Le Tour de Filipinas.
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