Racing season begins

How time flies. We were just celebrating the New Year, Sinulog and Valentine's Day, now we’re rolling towards the end of the first quarter of 2017. Actually you can already feel the searing heat of summer. Gone were the days of cool freezing and early morning breeze.  Anyway, this only means that the racing season begins, training shifts to another gear and prepare for the triathlon season.

I have mentioned a few races to look forward to this 2017 and sadly one of my favorite races, the Cebu City Triathlon, was cancelled due to some unavoidable circumstances. Triathlete needed something to fill up the void CCT3 left, but everything changed after a mountain bike fun ride with team TriCycad last January 11 with its team top cyclist Randy Uy and Nilo, who took their precious time and graciously showed yours truly and Fritz Co to what is popularly called the “snake route”, which just less than 3km from the main highway of Consolacion.

The first 3km was basically a flat but rugged terrain which brings us to a sudden super steep uphill at the quarry area of David Justion. The whole route is around 10km only, but it was short, sweet and complete. Complete in the sense that it has all the challenges a mountain biker looks for, from a steep loose technical uphill to a challenging long and fast downhill which sometimes makes you confused if you are going to use your brake or not because you need enough momentum to carry you to another steep uphill from that rocky downhill. Slow down and you might have to carry or push your bike to the next hill. Go to fast and you might lose control and roll down the hill ahead of your bike. So for this section, I always remember the advice of Sunrise big boss Fred Uytengsu, he mentioned before to never confused skills with guts. When in doubt get down and push your bike. So this is how the idea of holding the Consolacion Mountainbike Duathlon came up. Fritz Co felt that something was missing in the route so he, along with Christain Demoral, decided to look for additional access to make the route as technical as possible and find a way back to the quarry area. So we embarked through the “kalibunan” beside the hanging garden with no GPS and no maps. Just riding with gut feel that we can find a way which led to a wonderful discovery of this awesome single track with a technical downhill, switch back and river crossing. As we finally exited the river crossing it brought us to a corn plantation which is full of challenge because aside from the single track, you need to maneuver the 'land mines' all over (most of it still freshly out from the carabao which plows the field) plus numerous goats around the plantation area.        When we finally reached back to the quarry area, our arms and legs were full of scratches from the “tagingting” or bamboo twigs.

Fast forward today, the registration for the Consolacion Mountainbike Duathlon is already closed. We have a total number of 265 entries and surprisingly the slots were sold out in just eight days.

Mayor Teresa Alegado of the Municpality of Consolacion will be present during the gun start at 6 a.m. The main objective of this race is to promote the Municipality of Consolacion as a premier sports tourism destination and to advocate the importance of having a fit and healthy lifestyle. That is why Ms. Pam Bacus of the Consolacion Tourism board has given her all-out support to  make the race a success and hopefully it will not be the last. SM City-Consolacion will be converted into a world-class sporting venue. The gun start will be held inside the parking area with a huge start and finish arc.

Aside from the Consolacion Mountaibike Duathlon, other races to watch are the Mount Manunggal Uphill Challenge in Balambanon  March 19, Tour ni Frank, TRI X in Bantayan on April 8, Xterra in Danao on April 23, Tri Merida 2017, in Merida, Leyte on May 6 and 7, Sub 1 run challenge at Plaza Independencia on May 21. There's also Rotary Triathlon in Newtown in Mactan on June 11 and the Sogod 8080 in June as well.

Going back to the Consolacion MTB Duathlon, I advised the participants to keep their race bibs to avail of one-time 25 percent discount at YKK Bikes, Cycle Logic and Missing Link. Cornerstone and the 8080 Triathlon were also gracious enough to lend us their transition bike racks, while Grafix Pro printed all posters and registration forms. Fountain Head bakeshop will provide then post-race refreshments. The medals are handcrafted by Durabend and The Classical Touch. The other sponsors of the race are Bobhen Enterprise by Robert Pangilinan, Boysen Paints and Cebu Home Builders Center. CLIP2FIT will be raffling of beautiful items like fitness wrist band, weighing scale and some computer accessories. Trilife is the official magazine partner.  And to make our route safe, the Traffic Safety and Emergency Team of Consolacion will be in full force. There will also by ERUF, HERU and Larsen communication. The event would  not have been also made possible without the efforts of Atty. Christian Bacus and Atty. Terence Fernandez.

Gear up and get ready as the racing season begins.

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See you guys on March 26! Please be on time as the bike check-in opens at 4 a.m. The race briefing is at 5:30 a.m. and the official gun Start at 6 a.m. Updates will be posted at www.alanchoachuy.com and at the event's official FB page. Just search Consolacion Mountain Bike Duathlon. One may also reach me at [email protected]