Tour de Filipinas hits road today

MANILA, Philippines - In a prelude to a much bigger international road race next year, the four-stage 2010 Le Tour de Filipinas finally hits the road today with the starting field of 112 riders from 16 teams beginning their chase for fame and glory in Stage One from Tagaytay to Tagaytay.

The cream of Philippine cycling test their mettle against some of the world’s best in the four-day race presented by Tanduay and co-presented by Smart and Air21 and sanctioned by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) as an Asia Tour calendar event.

Being a short event, the riders are likely figure in a fierce race right on Day One where they tackle a 148.9km stage that will bring them down to Taal and Cuenca then back to the top in the scenic Tagaytay City.

It’s a massed start to be flagged off at 9 p.m. with Japanese Shinri Suzuki, South African Jeremy Maartens, Singaporean Hashim Junaidi and Hong Kong’s Scholz Timo among the international riders to watch.

The locals are likely to bank on their familiarity of the routes as they vie for honors and rich prizes.

Among the fancied local bets are two-time champions Victor Espiritu, Warren Davadilla and Santy Barnachea, one-time winner Arnel Quirimit, 2009 Padyak Pinoy titlist Joel Calderon and 2009 Tour of Luzon winner Mark John Guevarra.

Calderon remains as captain of Smart, Espiritu skippers the 7-Eleven team, Davadilla heads Tanduay, Quirimit will be Air21’s leader while Barnachea will banner Extra Joss in the Le Tour that offers more than P1 million in cash prizes – with the winner in each stage getting at least P84,000.

Guevarra will be assistant skipper to Baler Ravina on Team Pilipinas (Batang Tagaytay) which will ride under the auspices of the PhilCycling headed by its president, Tagaytay City Mayor Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino.

Promising young rider Irish Valenzuela will captain 2009 Padyak Pinoy team champion American Vinyl.

Completing the 10 local teams are Wow Videoke with Bernard Luzon as skipper and two squads from Camarines Sur – Camsur Water Sports Complex (Margarito Platilla skipper) and Lagos del Rey (Henry Rambayong skipper).

The international teams are the Japan-based Shimano, Mongolia’s Snow Leopard, South Africa’s DCM, Singapore’s OCBC, Hongkong’s CCN Sportswear-Colossi and the Giant Asia Racing Team.

Team Vali ASR Kerman of Iran didn’t make it as its riders encountered visa problems. They were supposed to fly to Manila from Bangkok, but were advised that they could only secure their Philippine visas in Tehran.

Organized by the Dynamic Outsource Solutions, Inc. – a company of Air21 chairman and former PhilCycling president Bert Lina – the Le Tour de Filipinas also has the North Luzon Expressway, Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway, Metro Pacific Tollways, Manila North Tollways Inc., Tollways Management Corp. and the Bases Conversion Development Authority as major partners.

After Tagaytay-Tagaytay stage, the riders compete in the Roxas Boulevard circuit stage tomorrow, the Quezon City-Subic Stage 3 on Monday and the Subic-Subic Stage 4 on Tuesday.

Burger King, Ube Media, Integrated Waste Management Inc., Sports Radio 918, Bureau of Broadcasts, dwBR, CCI Asia and Radio Mindanao Network are the major supporters.