It’s not a good time to be a pro cyclist these days

I’m talking about both local and international cycling professionals.

Let’s talk about local “pros”, but first the good news- the fable Tour of Luzon will be back. The bad news- Cebu is not fielding a single team for the ToL. Cebu has produced some of the best cyclists before in Philippine cycling history. They may not be household names anymore but back then, the Abaquitas, the Morings, The Delicas, the Miers, the Pagnanawons- they used to rule the road and the boards. A few years ago, I was riding in Cortes, Bohol when an old-timer shouted, “Abaquita!”.

Today, I feel so sad about the current state of cycling here. There are no programs for the sport and the sponsors have completely forgotten us. If not for the efforts of Mandaue Mayor Jonas Corte and Cebu City Councilor Rey Gealon for getting us a place to race during weekends. What these two government officials had done should be a signal for corporate sponsors to come in. I’m sure there are lots of tax deductibles to be had.

The reason why I feel doubly sad that Cebu is not represented in the ToL is that we have a potential champion in Jhonel Carcueva, the best climber in the country today. The ToL isn’t won in the flats but in the mountains ergo, Jhonel is probably one of the top favorites to win the ToL.

Another thing was that there was only about a month between the announcement and the start of the race to prepare. Fingers crossed that it will be a great edition.

We go to Europe. The start of the professional season unofficially started two Saturdays ago with the running of 118th edition of Milan- San Remo. I don’t have to tell you how the race unfolded, just check your YouTube feed and you will know.

What I did know all along was that these one day races (Monuments, they are called), will be owned by Matthieu van Der Poel and Tadey Pogacar. And I was right. Anyway the last seventeen of the twenty of the biggest single day races, including the World Championships and the Olympics, was won by only three riders: MVDP, Pogacar and the currently sidelined Remco Evenepoel.

They are so good that once they can get a gap from the field, it’s all over. If you’re not either of the three, then you might as well expect the best of the losers. When Lance Armstrong was dominating the Tour de France 1999-2005, he wasn’t exceptional in the one day races. In fact, I would suggest that he didn’t race in the smaller races to allow his teammates some of the spoils. MVDP fits in this mold, he helped his teammate Jasper Philipssen win Milan-San Remo last year.

On the other hand, Pogacar and Evenepoel are the opposite. The love to win. While it’s not fun to be a teammate, the fact they are the leaders who are paid well to win races while the teammates are simply there to support them.

Is this bad or good? Well, it’s bad for their respective teammates but great for the fans. The sport always grows when there is a dominant athlete.