Quirimit leads Dagupan cycling cast

DAGUPAN CITY — Newly-crowned Tour ng Pilipinas champion Arnel Quirimit will lead 70 cyclists in the inaugural Agew na Dagupan Criterium, the first-ever professional bicycle speed race to be held around the downtown streets highlighting the 56th chartering of this coastal city tomorrow.

This was disclosed by Mayor Benjamin Lim who stressed that the staging of the criterium is his administration’s way of recognizing the honor brought by 15 Tour champions, all from Pangasinan, and 17 Tour titles through the years.

Lim said the bicycle race shall feature the cream of the crop of Philippine multi-stage road and criterium races bannered by Quirimit, the 2003 Tour ng Pilipinas champion, the members of the RP cycling team as well as 60 other veteran and upstart riders from Northern Luzon, Central Luzon and Metro Manila including co-riders in Team Tanduay.

Lim, organizer of the race, has ordered the local PNP, POSO, City Engineer’s Office and CVO to mobilize 400 regulars and volunteers to help marshal the race loop and ensure orderly traffic flow as one lane of the city’s downtown streets shall be closed to vehicular traffic on June 19 from 6 a.m. until 4