Tour Pilipinas offers cool P1-M to team champ

An emphasis on team effort again becomes a priority in the 2004 Tour Pilipinas as P1 million in cash awaits the champion squad in the multi-stage cycling summer sports spectacle that hits the road from April 15 to May 2.

The P1 million first-place prize for the team champion is part of the total P4.751 million put up by the organizing Tour Pilipinas Inc. chaired by Bert Lina.

"Again, we have set the champion’s team prize at P1 million because of our belief that team effort should be given emphasis in the Tour," said Lina, whose Air21 is again principally bankrolling the Tour.

Twelve teams of seven cyclists each are competing in the Tour that will kick off down south in Sorsogon, Sorsogon, and pierce much of Luzon, including three Cagayan Valley stops. All in all, the 2004 Tour will cover a total 2,758.69 kms.

The trademark Baguio-to-Baguio stage, considered the maker of Tour champions in the past, is back as the centerpiece of the 17-stage, 21-day 2004 Tour. A Killer Lap prize of P25,000 will be given to the rider who rules the dreaded 199.7-km stage slated for April 30.

Runner-up in the team competition gets P500,000, a difference of half a million pesos from the team champion which is seen as more than enough incentive for all 12 teams to fight it out for no less than first place.

The third to 12th prizes are P350,000, P300,000, P275,000, P250,000, P225,000, P200,000, P180,000, P160,000, P140,000 and P120,000 for a total team prize of P3.7 million.

The individual champion gets P200,000, the second-placer brings home P150,000 and third P100,000. A stage winner will bag P10,000, while the squad that rules the Laoag-Vigan team time trial 13th stage on April 28 offers P20,000.

Other individual awards are the King of the Mountain worth P50,000, the Sprint King valued also at P50,000 and the Rookie of the Year, where 17 greenhorns will be fighting it out for P50,000 cash prize.

Arnel Quirimit will be back to defend his individual overall crown but he is expected to meet stiff opposition from former Tour champions, including Victor Espiritu, who is finally seeing action in the revival era of the Tour.

Warren Davadilla, Renato Dolosa, Carlo Guieb and even the age-less Bernard Llentada are the former champions in the roster.