Tolentino rebuilds national cycling team

MANILA, Philippines – PhilCycling president Abraham "Bambol" Tolentino on Wednesday disbanded the national team and formed a new one composed mainly of young riders headed by Mark Galedo and Ronald Oranza.

Tolentino said his vision is to gather the best under-23 cyclists under one team that will be coached by Chris Allison, train them abroad, including in Europe, and make them a winning machine in future international competitions like the Southeast Asian Games and Asian Games.

"I'm disbanding the team and forming this youth-laden squad because we're looking at the future," said Tolentino.

Galedo, the reigning Le Tour champion, Southeast Asian Games gold medalist and former Ronda Pilipinas winner who represents 7-Eleven/Roadbike, along with Oranza, who rides for LBC-MVP Sports Foundation, will represent the country in road race of the Incheon Asiad set Sept. 19 to Oct. 4.

Fil-Ams Daniel and Christopher Caluag were seeded to compete in the BMX division of the quadrennial event.

Also making the team are LBC-MVPASF's Rustom Lim and Navy's George Oconer, who made it through via their strong efforts in the Tarlac race a few weeks back and winners of Tuesday's trials--LBC-MVPSF's Ronald Lomotos and Junrey Navarra and 7-Eleven's Mark Bordeos.

The 23-year-old Lomotos, who finished second in one of  the stages in Tour de Borneo and 40th in the tough 1.2 Zuid Oost Drenthe Classic in Europe last April, clocked four hours, 54 minutes and 55 seconds to reign supreme in the 130-kilometer race that started and ended in Tagaytay City.

Bordeus, who had a podium finish in Tour de Singkarak just two weeks ago, came in second 59 seconds behind while Navarra, a two-time King of the Mountain winner in Ronda Pilipinas and a second-placed KOM winner in Tour de Singkarak, checked in third two minutes off the pace.

Also set for inclusion were 7-Eleven's Ryan Boots Cayubit, Johnmark Camingao, Rudy Roque and Dominic Perez.