18 foreign teams seek berths

Eighteen foreign teams have so far expressed interest to join the sixth Le Tour de Filipinas, the only International Cycling Union (UCI)-sanctioned multistage road race in the country which kicks off Feb.1 to 4 next year.

Composed mostly of tour returnees, the list includes Iran teams TSR Continental Team, TPT Cycling Team, Pishgaman Yazd Pro Cycling Team and Tabriz Shahrdadi Team, Japan squads Team Ukyo and Bridgestone Cycling Team and the Taiwan pair of RTS Carbon Team and Attaque Team Gusto.

The other foreign hopefuls are the Frøy-Bianchi Continental Team based in Norway, Team Novo Nordisk (TNN) from the United States and Satalyst Giant Racing Team and Team Vorarlberg from Australia.

Organized by Ube Media, the race—a brainchild of Air21 PhilCycling chair Bert Lina to bring Philippine cycling to the global stage—also celebrates 60 years of the Philippine Tour.

Other team applicants come from Brunei (CNN Cycling team and Brunei Prince’s Team), Kazakhstan (Astana Continental Team), Indonesia (Pegasus Continental Team), Malaysia (Terengganu Cycling Team) and Uzbekistan (National Team).

Organizers plan to limit the field to 15 teams, including two local squads—the PhilCycling national training pool and continental team 7-Eleven.

Mark John Galedo is the defending general classification champion.

The other Le Tour champs were Filipino Baler Ravina in 2012, Iranians Rahim Emami (2011) and Ghader Mizbani (2013) and David McCann of Ireland (2010).