INQUIRER Sports

THE COUNTRY?S TOP CYCLISTS TEST their limits once more when the Padyak Pinoy Tour of Champions, returns from May 8 to 15.

Fifteen teams composed of five cyclists each will vie in the eight-stage Tour, last held in 2007, that will approximately cover 1,150 km of flat lands, hairpin curves and excruciating mountain climbs.

The Tour starts at Taguig and will take the bidders to the provinces of Pampanga, Pangasinan, La Union, Ilocos Sur, Ilocos Norte and Benguet and culminate with the eight-loop Baguio-to-Baguio killer lap.

?The cyclists want more races and our role is to enliven the sport,? said Gary Cayton, president of the organizing Dos-1 said during the PSA Forum yesterday at the Shakey?s UN Avenue branch in Manila.

A total prize of P2.2 million is up for grabs with the team champion getting P500,000 and the individual winner receiving P50,000. The King of the Mountain and Rookie of the Year will also receive P20,000 each.
Former Tour champions Santy Barnachea and Arnel Querimit, internationalist Sherwin Carrera and Merculio Ramos are among the big names skippering the teams.

Barnachea, the 2002 Tour of Calabarzon champion and 2006 Padyak Pinoy winner, will captain the Air21 squad. Querimit, who ruled the 2003 Tour ng Pilipinas, will be the lead rider for the Columbia Sports squad.

?I?ve been preparing for the past month and I expect to do well in the Tour,? said Barnachea, who was joined in the forum by Querimit and A Freight rider Emilito Atilano.

Also present at the forum supported by Pagcor, Outlast Battery and Accel were Paquito Rivas of the Philippine National Cycling Association and Smart Sports? Art Aro, who said that the telecommunications firm is envisioning the Tour as Asia?s version of the prestigious Tour de France.