Titay's Centennial

During the Christmas Party of CebuCycling/RECYCLE at the Mandaue reclamation area last December, we invited cycling's very good friend, Dodong "Gamay" Frasco, whom we had not seen in years. But in all of those times, Dodong hasn't changed a lot, and except maybe for a few pounds here and there. The man is still as cool and humble as the Chuck Taylor's he always wear in this generation of Air Zooms and Climacools.

After introducing Dodong to the new but passionate cyclists, Dodong told us that Titay's Liloan Rosquillos & Delicacies, Inc. (hey, I googled this!) will be celebrating its one hundred years of existence. Whoa! One century, that's at least two lifetimes!!! And who haven't heard of Titay's rosquillos'? Or everybody's fave, CPA? Titay's is to Cebu as to branded kalamay in a coconut shell is to Bohol. It belongs to the same hemisphere as Magellan's Cross, the Taoist Temple or Fuente O. In fact, I believe that Titay's should be included as part of that Cebu Heritage program.

To commemorate Titay's Centennial, Dodong lined up lots of programs that will include a road and MTB race that will culminate on April 1. Mark Ylanan then suggested that a 100 km race would be a significant distance. So last Thursday, Dodong and his son Aljew, rounded us up - me, Mark, Ome Rodriguez, Jong Sepulveda, Mike Flores, Sasay Salazar, Ramon Vidal and Adan Muana at the Outpost, (a cool watering hole with an outdoor motif just as you go up to Marco Polo Hotel) to iron out any possible kinks in the race. Fortunately, with a group like that, it was hard to disagree. So I hope to see you in the biggest road race this 2007 on April 1!

Padyak Pinoy

Eddy Filosopo, a very good friend of mine and a marshall for the trials this coming April 1 had texted me that the trials is a go based on an article found on the Philippine Star l ast week. So last Saturday, I texted (09209120512) a certain Ronald Cabansay, one of the coordinators of DOS1, the organizers of PP, and asked him about the trials here. Although Cabansay was very polite, he could not give me a definite yes or no. All he could say in the end was that he was going to call Joe Deresas about it.

I also asked former Marlboro champion Victor Espiritu about it in one of the cycling forum in the net and he said that as far as he knows, the teams had already been formed, the coaches have been selected and the support crew ready to do their work so how could another trial be in the works, he questioned? But then again, strange things can happen so I really hope that this will work out for the best.

Running parallel to this year's PP is an executive category race. This would have been a dream race for all Lance wannabe's in Cebu had it not been for the difficult qualifications guidelines. For instance, you have to be employed by a top 5000 corporation in the country with a supervisory position at least.