Over 100 riders to fire off Ronda 2015

DUMAGUETE CITY – Over a hundred cycling hopefuls from all over the country chasing a dream fight it out for slots in the championship round when the Ronda Pilipinas 2015 presented by LBC unfurls Tuesday with the three-stage Visayas qualifying leg in this Negros Oriental capital.

"We're expecting a hundred, probably more to participate in the Visayas qualifier," said Ronda executive director Moe Chulani.

A total of 54 slots, 50 elite riders and four juniors, to the championship round set from Feb. 22-27 unfolding in Greenfield City in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, and culminating in mountaintop Baguio will be up for grabs.

Stage One will be a 172.7-km Dumaguete-Sipalay race to be followed by the 157.8-km Bacolod-Bacolod Stage Two and the 120-km Bacolod-Cadiz Stage Three on Friday.

Ronda will then go up North for the two-stage Luzon qualifiers with a 138.9-km Tarlac-Tarlac Stage One on Feb. 16 and a 102.5-km Antipolo-Antipolo Stage Two on Feb. 17, this time staking a total of 34 slots (30 elite, four juniors).

Then all the 88 qualifiers from the Visayas and Luzon legs will make it to the main event alongside last year’s winner Reimon Lapaza of Butuan, the nine-man national team spearheaded by Mark Galedo and a composite European team composed mainly of Danish riders.

Meanwhile, Dutch Martin Bruin, Ronda's chief president and head commissaire, and five foreign officials have all arrived along with the rest of the 150-man Ronda caravan running the race.

"We're all accounted for. We're just waiting the final list of participants and we're ready to roll," said Ronda administration director Jack Yabut.

Joining Bruin, a Tour de France veteran who has been around Ronda in the first four stagings, are fellow commissaries Micky Rob, Eduard Park, Ji Jin Qiu, Beatrice Lajawa and Jamal Mahmood.

The Mindanao riders will be ferried from Dipolog for free on Feb. 10, according to Yabut.

The race is being presented by LBC and supported by major sponsors the Manny V. Pangilinan Sports Foundation, Petron and Mitsubishi and minor sponsors Cannondale, Standard Insurance, Tech1 Corp., Maynilad and NLEX and sanctioned by PhilCycling under Cavite Congressman Abraham "Bambol" Tolentino with TV5 and Sports Radio as media partners.

Visayas' Stage One will start at the Negros Oriental Prov'l Capitol and end in Sipalay City Plaza (172.7 kilometers for elite, 120.2 kms for juniors); Stage Two will start at the Bacolod City Plaza and end at the Bacolod Government Center via Don Salvador Benedicto and San Carlos (158 kms for elite, 110.5 kms for juniors) on Feb. 12 ; and Stage Three will open at the Negros Occidental Provincial Capitol and end in Cadiz City (123 kms for elite and juniors).

Interested parties may get their registration form online at Ronda Pilipinas' official Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/RondaPilipinas, and Twitter account, @rondapilipinas, or aspirants may register a day or two hours before Qualifying Race Day for just P1,000 per entry per stage.