Tour de France chief gives 'Ronda' bets high marks

DUMAGUETE CITY, Philippines – Dutch Hendrikus Van der Linden, one of the foreign officials running the ongoing LBC Ronda Pilipinas, was amazed over local cyclists’ performance under bad road and race conditions.

 “The organization, cyclists and climbs are perfect,” said Van der Linden, technical consultant and commissaire 2 who is a former Tour de France commissaire, during the eight-hour boat ride that ferried the 400-plus Ronda delegation from Cagayan de Oro to this seaport place dubbed “The City of Gentle People” early yesterday.

“The accents, though good, should not be early in the stage but here you go up 14km right after the bend, you go straight up, that’s a no-no in the Tour de France.

“And then like a machine gun, cyclists here go at it but in Europe you can’t, not until after 50km, there we have seven climbs in a stage but they go after 70km,” he added.

The Dutch official likes it that LBC is investing big money to lure cyclists – a whopping P7 million money pot including a cool P1 million apiece to the individual and team champions – as well as the huge crowd turnout.

“The prize money is great. In Europe, you don’t get $20,000 for a race like this so this is really good,” he said.

“We had a good crowd in Day One,” he said

But while heaping praises on organizers and cyclists, Van der Linden had no good words for the unpaved and rough roads from Cagayan de Oro to Malaybalay, Bukidnon opening stage Saturday and perhaps would expect more in the final 11 stages as the tour resumes today with the Dumaguete-Silay, Negros Occidental lap.

“The roads no good, riders in Europe will get angry at it.”

Van der Linden said that though local riders are strong and tough, they need to train, prepare and compete more to succeed.

“Pinoy cyclists need to train more and get used to Europe condition and race in the higherl-level races and you don’t get nervous,” he said.

Van der Linden also thinks early team leader, a 7-Eleven team headed by early favorite Lloyd Lucien Reynante, Irish Valenzuela and Sherwin Carrera, may have been jumping the gun early in their quest to reign supreme in this 12-leg, 20-day race to the whole country.

“You don’t made things here, the 7-Eleven guys, four of them, went in the lead pack and I think it’s a wrong strategy,” said Van der Linden. “They go at it and then slash-throat gesture, here you must play role and support each other.

“Use the wind to your advantage. I like to watch things from the roof of the car and see one rider try to break away and then fade away, that’s not the way it is in Europe,” he added.

Jamaludin Mahmoud, a former Asia Tour advisor and technical race consultant of the Tour de Langkawi, and Martin Bruin, a former president commissaire or chief referee of the Tour de France, are the other international commissaires handling the event.