NOBODY considered Reimon Lapaza a potential champion in last year’s race and so was three-time winner Mark Galedo when he won his first Tour back in 2009.
The Ronda Pilipinas 2015 presented by LBC will search far and wide to discover talents like Galedo and Lapaza when the 2,015-kilometer multistage bikathon flags off early next month.
Ronda Pilipinas executive project director Moe Chulani has high hopes that they will find potential champions from the provinces before the tough bikathon.
“The main goal is to harness these young talents and train them to be world-class competitors,” said Chulani.
For the first time in the last five stagings, Tour organizers have decided to hold the eliminations in Mindanao (Feb. 8 and 9), Visayas (Feb. 11 and 12) and Luzon (Feb. 15 and 16).
About 100 riders are set to make it to the eight-stage tour.
They will join 2014 champion Lapaza of Butuan City in the quest for the P1-million individual winner’s purse along with national riders Galedo, Ronald Oranza, Rustom Lim, George Oconer and a nine-man European squad composed mostly of Danish cyclists.
The Ronda is sponsored primarily by MVP Sports Foundation and sanctioned by PhilCycling. June Navarro