Espiritu heads crack field in Pilipinas Tour qualifier

Top national Victor Espiritu heads a field of 286 riders who will vie in today’s qualifying races for the 2004 Tour Pilipinas.

The aspirants will vie in a 190-km road race on a course that starts and ends in Cuenca, Batangas. Tomorrow, it will be a 36-km individual time trial (ITT) race from Lemery to Batulao, also in Batangas.

The top 48 riders after the two-day qualifyings will earn slots to the 2004 Tour which Air21, FedEx and Mail and More are principally bankrolling. They will join the 36 riders who were seeded after finishing at the upper half of the 2003 Tour, which is also supported by Caltex, BPI-MS and Lipovitan.

The next 12 after determining the top 48 in the qualifyings will become alternates to the 12 teams for next summer’s Tour which is scheduled March 15 to April 4.

The qualifyings will precede the Tour of Puerto Princesa, the third major cycling event the Tour Pilipinas Inc. has scheduled for November. Last Sunday, the Metro Manila Special Race was staged with PagcorSports stalwarts Lloyd Reynante and Rhyan Tanguilig finishing 1-2.

The Tour of Puerto Princesa is scheduled Nov. 29 and 30. The 36 seeded riders to the 2004 Tour and the top 14 from this weekend’s qualifyings as well as local riders in Puerto Princesa will vie in the special race.

The 12 teams in the Tour—Tanduay, Intel, Samsung, PagcorSports, Bowling Gold, PLDT-NDD, Gilbey’s Island Punch, DENR Ecosavers, BIR Vat Riders, DILG Patrol 117, DILG Drug Busters and DOTC Postmen—will then pick their riders in the draft set for Decemeber 17.

The race management group Philippine National Cycling Association has set a cutoff for riders in tomorrow’s road race at "plus 10 percent" of the winning time.

Only those who make the cutoff will race in the ITT the next day.