20 foreign, local teams compete in Le Tour

MANILA, Philippines - A total of 20 local and international teams have confirmed participation when the fourth edition of the Le Tour de Filipinas hits the road from April 13 to 17 starting from the beautiful beaches of Pagudpud and ending at the Northern Alps of Baguio City.

The Phl National team, Navy-Standard, LPGMA-American Vinyl, Marines Cycling Team and continental squads Team 7-Eleven and LBC-MVPSF Cycling Pilipinas will comprise the local challenge as they face a tough foreign challenge where teams not just from Asia but also from Europe are participating.

Among them are the Dutch Global of the Netherlands, Perth of Australia, Atilla of Mongolia, CNN of Taiwan, Team Direct of Hong Kong, Tabriz and Mirror Zamani of Iran, Korean Railway of Korea, Positivi Peugeot of Japan, Ploygon of Ireland, Portuguese CT of Portugal and Brunei  Cycling Team of Brunei.

Interestingly, Terranganu of Malaysia are also coming to the country to plunge into action despite the Sabah tension that already caused the withdrawal of the Malaysians from fielding a team in ongoing Asian Youth Boxing Championship in Subic and a friendly with the Phl Azkals team.

“Sports is really a unifying factor and cycling is no exception. We’re happy the Malaysians are joining, they’ve been fixtures for the last four years so we’re really not surprised,” said PhilCycling chairman emeritus Bert Lina, who also heads the Lina Group of Companies that is organizing and bankrolling this annual event, in yesterday’s media launch at the Manila Hotel.

LBC, which is a direct competitor of the sponsoring Air21 and FedEx in the forwarding business in the country, is also participating for the first time and has fielded the LBC Cycling Pilipinas-MVP Sports Foundation, which is composed of the continental team composed of the country’s top young riders.

“This is the first time that the country’s top forwarders are joining in the Le Tour so this is really something to see,” said Edgardo Cayton of the Le Tour organizing committee.

The four-day race is also sanctioned by the UCI, or the world governing body of cycling headed by Pat McQuaid.

“The Le Tour de Filipinas is an extremely important cycling event in Asia and the only one in the Phl to be part of the UCI Asia Tour,” said McQuaid through a e-mail message.

The race will be flagged off with a 175.5-kilometer Pagudpud-Aparri Stage One on April 13 followed by the 196-km Aparri-Cauayan Stage Two the next day.

On April 15, riders will tackle the 104-km Cauayan-Bayombong Stage Three before bracing for the dreaded Sierra Madre and Cordillera mountains of Baguio in the 132-km Bayombong-Baguio fourth and final lap that should make or break the rider’s campaign.

Last year, the Iranians were leading by a mile approaching Baguio but all fizzled out negotiating the up-and-down, steep stage, allowing 7-Eleven’s Baler Ravina to come out of nowhere and top the stage and the race.

“It will not be different this year, we hope to do good again,” said 7-Eleven team manager Bong Sual, who was with 7-Eleven team director Ric Rodriguez.