The Grandia de Mayo, if it's as good as advertised, could be the grandest bicycle race Cebu has seen in the past decade or so.
The GdM, scheduled this weekend and is a 2-day, 3-stage event that is being organized by Mae Ojales. According to Mae, who is also very active in the road racing scene and had just returned from the Tour of Friendship in Thailand, Stage 1 is an 76km road race that will start at the Talisay City Hall and end up in the southwestern town of Moalboal via Guadalupe, Carcar. This will be followed in the afternoon by a 20km team time trial from Moalboal to Badian. The final stage will be held the following day and is a 120km slog from Moalboal to Sibonga via Santander.
This event is an open event, meaning, professional cyclists and beginners alike can race shoulder to shoulder. Although I know that having novices and pros in the same race isn't a good mix, I hope that a natural order of the race can be established early on to minimize unwanted incidents. However, there will be different prizes for the nine categories penned in for this race.
As have been the practice in most road racing events these days, transponders will be used to minimize mistakes in timed events. These gizmos are already an accepted and an integral part of bicycle racing these days.
Sports Tourism
I hope that the GdM will be a success and won't just be a "one and done" event. Cebu needs a race like this, a race that is geared towards the sports enthusiast who don't never had a chance to race at a younger age due to work and school. Sports Tourism, especially cycling, is one area that that Cebu needs to develop. It's my biased observation that unlike other sporting events, which are one-day events, (executive) cycling is at the very least a 2-day event. In my experience, a multi-day event would mean that the cyclist/tourist will be staying in a hotel, eat at restaurants and most likely spend money on tourists spots and other tourist-related activities.
Also, most cyclists treat this races as a family activities therefore it's not unusual to see whole families go to these races and support mom and dad, or brother and sister, boyfriend or girlfriend but also it presents a good downtime for those concerned. About 15 teams, about ten of them from the neighboring provinces, are expected to join. Team CebuCycling will also be joining and supporting this event.
In my experience, it's not very easy to convince sponsors and authorities about holding a bicycle road race so that's why I am saying, "chapeau", to Mae!
Now, if only those concerned can see the potential of supporting these events.
Finally, the major sponsor of the GdM is FRANZIA WINES. Transponders will be supplied by BIKE KING and race marshals are again the RECYCLE crew……It was fun riding yesterday to Barili, there was very little traffic (thanks to Money P) and it was raining…… In a surprising move, three major sports networks in the US that I have been following had an unfamiliar headline last Monday. It wasn't about sports but about the death of its number one enemy, Osama bin Laden…...– THE FREEMAN