All sytems go for 1st ASEAN Mountainbike Cup

CEBU, Philippines - The Union Cycliste Internationale  International Commissaires declared that the race course, for the staging of the first Association of Southeast Asian Nations Cup passed their standard and ready for the kickoff  race tomorrow at the treacherous Manlayag-Patag in Danao City.

Danao have already hosted several international events including the Southeast Asian Games, but the race course for the two-day race is highly different from the previous ones.

"It really is of World Cup standards. Not only in distance, but the race course itself. It is not a very technical course, but it is very punishing one. We expect a very hard race this weekend," said UCI Commissaire Geoffret Kronenberg of Malaysia in a press conference yesterday at Casino Español.

Evidence of the challenge and danger that the race course presents, organizers informed that there are already two downhill participants that have suffered a broken collar bone, one from Ormoc and one from Malaysia while a female local bet in cross-country also suffered a bad crash in the cross-country accordingly during the final pre-Asean Mountainbike Cup last Sunday.

Not to scare the rest though especially the first-timers, there are options that one can take if they are scared to deal a certain portion of the course especially in downhill.

"The race course is times two in terms of difficulty as that of the 2005 SEA Games in Danao," said Joey Barba, a National team mainstay.

Close to 80 foreign cyclists are seeing actions in the downhill event plus another 200 foreign and local cyclists combined in the cross-country.

The categories to be contested in the cross-country are the men's elite, juniors, masters, women's elite and juniors, men's open (19-above), masters A (30-39) and masters B (40-above). The downhill event will have the men and women's elite, men and women's juniors (17-18), men's open, men's masters A and B.

Race proper starts tomorrow with five divisions that are the cross-country men and women's juniors, women's elite and open and the men's open.

The downhill event's seeding run is also scheduled tomorrow at 2 pm while final run will be on Sunday along with the cross-country men's master A and B and premiere men's elite class. (FREEMAN)