A Local team for the Tour of Luzon?

Starting April 24 and ending on May 1, the greatest show on two-wheels will be back on the road. Last held in 1976, this years race will start in Laoag and end up on the Pines City,

While clearly this is a hastily planned event, given that it was announced late February, I cross my fingers that the event will be a trouble free event in terms of logistics. Never mind any controversy about the racing, it’s a racing controversy that makes this spectacle easy to love.

There was a time when the Tour of Luzon was something a great segment of our population, especially in the northern part of the country,  waited for every summer. I was also one of the fans glued to my AM radio at work, trying to figure out the Tagalog between the static of the AM radio.

While a race is still a race, there are two main differences this year that IMO, makes the race better. One, it’s a one-week race. It used to be three weeks, just like the Grand Tours in Europe do. In fact, I would say that they were actually from Grand Tours- Tour de France, Giro d’Italia, Vuelta a Espana and the Tour of Luzon. It was only when we wanted recognition from the UCI that the race was trimmed down in relation to the number of days.

Two, there are no more eliminations. Back then there were a series of eliminations in Cebu, Mindanao and Luzon to determine the cyclists who will ride the ToL. So it was possible to ride with a team (determined by the organizers of course) that you don’t get along with. Today, anyone can put up a team and the organizers don’t have a say on who is with the team. With this set up it would be easy to pinpoint a team leader and the domestiques that will super the leader. No more unambiguity on team hierarchy anymore.

Until last week, I felt disappointed that no one put a purely Cebuano team considering our rich history and champions of the sport. Yesterday, I heard from a very reliable source that there is going to be a Cebuano team that will be riding the ToL. I’m not going to preempt any  announcement on who the sponsor will be, I’ll let them announce the team officially.

The only minor downer here is that most of our good riders have already been picked up by Manila-based teams. But then again, it’s not easy to put up a team for an event of this magnitude in just two months. I know its crazy but I hope this team will pull it off.