Road racing is back in Danao!

After so many months of inactivity, local bicycle road racing is backand it titled as the "Danao City Mayor's Cup Road Race" this weekend. Thanks to the efforts of Jerome "Ome" Rodriguez and the City of Danao. I am hoping that this event will bring back a resurgence of  local road races that have been dormant lately.

Close to 80 cyclists from Cebu and the surrounding provinces will have already listed up for the event which is more than the usual participants that have been joining the past races. They will be racing in two categories based on age, the U-40 and the 40+. The race is an out and back race starting in Danao going to Ilihan, Sogod and then back to Danao for the finish. The main difficulty is the climb to Lugo, which is about 6 km long. Although the gradient is not that steep, cyclists will still have to tackle a similar climb on the way back. This route has been used for a long time now and it usually favors a sprinter who can keep up with the climbers. Climbers can probably escape from the peloton but I don't think that they can survive riding solo from the start to the finish. Remember that there are 30km of flat roads before the finish.

There are now more cyclists hitting the road not only for health reasons but also for competitive ones. The Cobra Ironman 70.3 and has lured out folks from their comfort zones to join this popular event. Hopefully, this will just be a start of many events in the future. Also, there will be a climbing road race a week after next, which will start at JY Square in Lahug going to TOPS.

Chris Horner

The oldest professional rider in the world today racing at the highest level is American Chris Horner. Horner will be 42yo this October and debut as a pro when Miguel Indurain was still racing.

Chris Horner's contemporaries include Lance Armstrong and if I may say, he was a good as Armstrong except that for whatever reason, he enjoyed racing and tearing up the competition in US races. After a good showing in the World Championships in 2004, he was back in Europe. Strangely, as the second most successful rider after Armstrong, he never rode for Lance until Lance made a comeback. Maybe because he was outspoken and the Texan didn't want a teammate couldn't control. Maybe.

Horner is a climber but injuries and the wrong team and the wrong time often prevented him from leading a team in the Tour de France. For instance, he rode for Cadel Evans, Lance, Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck in the TdF as a supporting role so he could never showed his stuff.

Finally, in this years VueltaaEspana, RadioShack has given him the leadership and he didn't disappoint. He attacked late during stage 3 to not only win but grabbed the overall leadership at the same time. Unfortunately, he lost the next day after bad positioning in the bunch, when somebody created a gap.

Horner is now 17sec off the overall and could well go on to win his first Grand Tour at age 41.