4-stage Le Tour Filipinas under way

MANILA, Philippines - Seventy-five local and foreign riders begin their quest for supremacy in the Le Tour Filipinas which fires off today over a short, flat circuit that starts and ends at the Rajah Sulaiman Park on Roxas Blvd.

The opening leg of the four-stage circuit is set over 66 kms, a relative short route but which features tactical racing over an 11-km stretch with an average speed of 40 kph.

Flag off is at 7:30 a.m.

No less than Pat McQuaid, president of the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), has given the world-governing body’s blessing on the Le Tour, which is presented this year by Kia Motors with Smart and Air21 as partners.

“For the second year in a row, the many devotees of cycling in the Philippines will have an opportunity to experience the great excitement of a race held in stages,” said McQuaid. “The event is vitally important to this new phase of development of our sport in this magnificent country where all the conditions are now united to enable cycling to regain the standard of quality and the degree of popularity which it had previously attained some years ago.”

“It’s all systems go,” said Bert Lina, the former president of the PhilCycling and overall chairman of the organizing committee under the Dynamic Outsource Solutions, Inc. banner, of the Le Tour which is racing under the advocacy “Philippines Bikes For Water.”

The race is calendared by the UCI on the Asia Tour and sponsored by Wow Videoke, American Vinyl, Phoenix Fuel, Maynilad, Cannondale-Mavic, Roadbike Philippines, 7-Eleven, Integrated Waste Management, Inc., Shopinas and SignMedia.

The second stage tomorrow will cover 153 kms from Balanga (Bataan) to Iba (Zambales). From Iba, the riders will pedal 151 kms from Zambales to the Pangasinan finish in Lingayen for Stage 3 on Monday.

Then comes the final stage on on Tuesday – a 112-km ride that culminates with a treacherous climb on Kennon Road to the Burnham Park finish in Baguio City.

The foreign teams are Giant Kenda (Taiwan), CCN Colossi (The Netherlands), OCBC (Singapore), Azad University (Iran), Terengganu PASM (Malaysia), Suren Cycling Team (Iran) and Bridgestone-Anchor (Japan), while the local squads are Smart, Kia-PhilCycling Under-23, American Vinyl, Roadbike Philippines, 7-Eleven, Shopinas, Wow Videoke and Air21.

Besides the general classification champion, the King of the Mountain as well as the Sprint Classification trophies will be awarded.