Stepping stone to the Tour

Today, members of Team LBC-MVP Sports Foundation Cycling Pilipinas fly to India to represent the country in the weeklong Asian Cycling Championships, the most important cycling event on the continent. The young team is composed of Ronald Oranza of Pangasinan, John Renee Mier of Cebu and Rustom Lim of Nueva Ecija. All under 23 years of age, and are part of the development program that LBC has instituted to find athletes who may eventually race in the world’s biggest competitions such as the Tour de France.

“We purposely selected younger cyclists,” admits LBC’s Moe Chulani, organizer of the logistically challenging LBC Ronda Pilipinas. “Our thrust is to provide more opportunities for the next generation of cyclists to learn what it takes to race internationally.”

On Thursday, March 14, Mier will compete in the 35-kilometer men’s under 23 individual time trial. Oranza will compete in the 40-kilometer elite men’s individual time trial. On Saturday, March 16, Lim, Oranza, and Mier will compete in the 140-kilometer under 23 men’s road race. Finally, on Sunday, March 17, all three will again compete in the 200-kilometer elite men’s road race. They will be facing the most experienced cyclists from this part of the world for the first time. All this is in line with the vision of LBC head Dino Araneta.

After the ban on cigarette advertising, local cycling’s biggest events lost their biggest sponsors, particularly the Tour of Luzon, which had become known as the Marlboro Tour. Araneta, who once managed the Batangas Blades in the defunct Metropolitan Basketball Association, is himself a cyclist, and rued the fact that no Filipino had ever made it to the Tour de France. It was ironic that our cyclists who were used to adversity of every kind never saw the kind of competition only the Tour could provide. They had slept in public school classrooms, had makeshift tools for repairing worn-out bikes, and overcame terrible conditions for prize money once a year.

The only problem he saw was the absence of patrons willing to bet on Filipino talent. Multinational corporations bet on proven, name talents. Cycling was an unknown for Filipinos to compete in abroad. No one wanted to invest six figure amounts on high-tech, lightweight, space-age bicycles. Until now.

“There are many road races, but there is only one Tour,” says the Harvard-educated Araneta. “With what we’ve seen, we believe a Filipino can eventually conquer the Tour de France. They’ve done so much with so little. What more if they have support?”

The New Delhi competition will also be a good gauge of how far LBC’s program has come. Their signature Ronda Pilipinas underscored the company’s capability to undertake the most daunting logistical challenges. The roughly P50 million project entailed transporting a contingent of about 500 people across the breadth of the Philippines over two and a half weeks, including the organizers, sponsors, media, police, technical team, support staff, vehicles and of course, the 96 cyclists. LBC has been pulling it off seamlessly.

With the success of Ronda Pilipinas, LBC has now gotten the attention of international federations and race organizers. Team LBC-MVPSF has been receiving invitations to compete in Europe and other continents, and will eventually join those major cycling events consistently. For now, they are taking it one sure step at a time, doing it the way it needs to be done, slowly and steadily. Make no mistake, this is a real, substantial, long-term program for a sport that truly deserves it.

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The second leg of the Kopiko Astig 3-in-One Supercross Series held in Bais City, Negros Oriental over the weekend was another smashing success. A crowd of roughly 25,000 watched the first heats on Saturday and swelled even more in the finals Sunday. The event was part of the tourism development plan of Mayor Karen Villanueva, with the support of Congresswoman Josy Limkaichong, who were both on hand to watch the final heats and hand out trophies to the winners. Bais City boasts of a growing eco-tourism and entrepreneurship sector and an almost non-existent 0.02 percent crime rate.

The next leg of the Kopiko Astig 3-in-One Supercross Series will be staged in Bacolod City on April 6 and 7.