Sports Eye
Cyclist and lawyer Paddy
By Jesus A. Garcia Jr.
AFTERNOON of December 8, I received the text message from The PUNCH colleague Al Mendoza that my cycling contemporary of the same age, the back-to-back (1966-1967) Tour of Luzon champion Atty. Cornelio Padilla Jr. had passed away due to heart failure arising from pneumonia. I was shocked because the last time I met Padilla (Paddy or Jun as fondly called by his co-cyclists, friends and relatives), he had already completely recovered from a mild-stroke he suffered many years ago. But “expect the unexpected” as the saying goes. His death came one and-a-half year after my other cycling contemporary, the three-time Tour titlist cycling icon Manuel ‘Maui” Reynante passed away. Honestly, kung minsan para bang nakikita ko na rin na baka ako na yata ang susunod. I wish and I always pray to Almighty God to give me more years as I have not completed all my assignments in life. But nobody is indispensable and we should know and be ready how to face the reality. Eventually we’ll all have to go because according to God in his Holy Book, we came from dust and we’ll return to dust. “For with God nothing will be impossible.” LUKE 1:37
I first met Paddy during the 1964 National Amateur Cycling Championship held in Lingayen, Pangasinan where he bagged the gold medal in the road race event at age 17. I placed fifth. The top five victors of the race were selected for the Philippine national team for the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games. It was the late Atty. Geruncio Lacuesta, founder of the fabled Tour of Luzon (ToL) and also the president of the national amateur cycling body (then called Philippine Amateur Cycling Association), who formed the national team to participate in that year’s 14-day ToL. Paddy landed sixth in the overall classification winning the short and crucial (29 kms) 12th stage Burgos to Baguio City race-against-the-clock. I won two stages (Laoag City to San Fernando L.U. and Baguio City to Binalonan, and landed 18th overall). Despite the age factor and lack of skills in multi-stage racing, our youthful national team finished second overall in the team standing won by the dreaded Pangasinan squad. The big race was our training ground for the Tokyo Games but unfortunately in the end I was dropped from the team because of the ‘who you know and what you have’ (palakasan) system. Paddy was the only Asian rider in the Tokyo Games road race that managed to stick with the first group won by Mario Zanin of Italy.
While Paddy preferred to remain in amateur status the following year (1965), I decided to turn pro and luckily copped the ToL first runner-up plum, with the late Jose Sumalde as champion. Paddy represented our country in the 1965 Asian Amateur Cycling Championship and won the bronze medal in the road race notched by his teammate, Reynante. The RP squad also won the gold owing to the strong performances of Reynante, Paddy and Jose delos Santos from San Carlos. And just a week after the Asian tilt, the First Asian Amateur Tour of Luzon was held and it was a remarkable 1-2-3 finish for the RP squad with Reynante capturing the title and Paddy finishing a close second while Arturo Romeo coming in third. RP team also won the team honors. While Reynante chose to remain as an amateur, Paddy turned pro in 1966 and captured the 16-day ToL diadem. I placed ninth overall but our West Pangasinan team bagged the team title. Paddy successfully defended his crown in 1967 and I bagged the first-runner-up plum and the West Pangasinan squad that I skippered also defended the team tiara.
It was ToL 1973 when I met Paddy again in competition where I won the coveted individual crown and the team title. Paddy just placed fourth behind my teammate and town mate Cesar Catambay and Sumalde. That was the last time we competed against each other. He eventually retired in 1974 after passing the bar. He was one of the convenors of a professional cycling group called Professional Cycling Association of the Philippines (PCAP) with former president Fidel V. Ramos as the honorary chairman that organized the now defunct Marlboro Tour. The rest is history.
And now he’s gone, and I’m sure his co-cyclists, his compañeros, friends, relatives will miss him much for his good camaraderie and especially for the cycling legacy he left us. I would describe him as one of the greatest cyclists that this troubled nation has ever produced. We ardently pray for his eternal repose. Goodbye Paddy. We’ll never forget you and your legacy. My heartfelt sympathy to his family.
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK: Then the angel Gabriel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. LUKE 1: 30-31
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