By Jesus A. Garcia Jr.

 

MANY of our cycling diehard enthusiasts in Pangasinan say that competitive cycling in the province is fast losing interests and support. I tend to agree because I have noted, to my own dismay, that our provincial cyclists’ performance in the last five years have been very disappointing. Note that after our grand slam victories in 2018 winning the four-day Le Tour de Filipinas by my Mangaldan town mate Joshua Cariño and the nine-day Ronda Pilipinas won by Ronald Oranza of Villasis, our cyclists have not succeeded to win in any major race since, including this month’s 2024 National Cycling Championships held in Tagaytay City. The best that our Pangasinan squad had was a bronze medal finish, courtesy of Oranza in the criterium race won by former two-time Ronda Pilipinas king (2016-2017) Jan Paul Morales of Marikina City. Claire Vinoya of Calasiao won silver in the road race women’s category.

During my amateur days at young age of eighteen years, I joined the national amateur cycling road race in 1964 and placed fifth. Reminiscing the race, participants passed the towns of Mangaldan, San Jacinto, Manaoag, Pozorrubio, Sison (by-passed), then climbed the treacherous Kennon Road and passed the downtown city of Baguio. We took the Naguilian Road in going back to Pangasinan passing the La Union province towns of Sablan, Burgos, Naguilian, Bauang, Aringay, Agoo, Sto. Tomas (by-passed), Damortis, back to San Fabian, Mangaldan, Dagupan City, Binmaley, then finished in Lingayen.

It was the late two-time Tour of Luzon champion (1966-1967) Cornelio Padilla, Jr. of Concepcion, Tarlac who won the 205 kilometers event, beating Daniel Olivares of Metro Manila in the oval finish at Narciso Ramos Sports and Civic Center.

Now retired are the former dominant road race sprinters from Pangasinan: Enrique Domingo of San Carlos City, Florante Solomon of San Jacinto, Ericson Obosa of Manaoag, Arnel Quirimit of Pozorrubio, the late Edgardo Pagarigan of Bugallon, to name some. Pagarigan won the silver medal in the 1983 Asian Cycling Championships that earned him the privilege to represent the Philippines in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games. He was beaten by the European and the American cyclists in the track events during the elimination rounds and failed to enter the second round.

Let me emphasize that a one-day road race is very different from a multi-stage bikefest or a tour. Many cyclists, especially the sprinters, can win a one-day road race particularly if the event is ran on flat roads, but they perform  poorly in multi-stage racing and, therefore, cannot win any tour. The names that I mentioned above were some of them, except Quirimit who won the 15-day 2003 Tour ng Pilipinas.  I knew I was one of the best sprinters during my cycling heydays but I still managed to win four of the ten stages when I won my first tour – the 1973 Tour of Luzon. Lucena City was the first stage, Lingayen, fourth stage; Sudipen, Ilocos Sur eight stage, and Bayambang, the penultimate stage, beating my teammate Cesar Catambay by just 54 seconds. Our Pangasinan team that I led, was composed mostly of 22-years old riders and we also won the team championship against the Ilocandia squad.

Indeed, gone were the days.  Gone are our cyclists dominant in this two-wheeled sport. But I’m still confident that our boys will make a successful comeback, someday soon.

*          *          *          *

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. 1 TIMOTHY 6: 17

Share your Comments or Reactions

comments

Powered by Facebook Comments