The yodeler of cycling’s blues

TIME, LACED with beer, has rusted the vocal chords of this famous yodeler.
But if cycling icon Jesus Garcia Jr. were to break into a song, he’d yodel about the impending doom facing the sport he loves because of a leadership powderkeg.
The nation’s pedalists are torn between two groups claiming legitimacy over the other and thumbing their noses at each other.
One’s the original faction with a set of officers recognized by UCI, the international cycling federation. The other’s the bloc that only recently chose a leader with a pipeline to President Aquino.
Both bodies, when pushed by the Philippine Olympic Committee, held a so-called “unified tryouts” in late August to select common entries to the Asian Games in November.
Their leadership dispute, however, remains a time bomb waiting to explode and obliterate participation in the Guangzhou Asiad this year.
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Remember the 2009 Southeast Asian Games in Vientiane, Laos, where cyclists became collateral damage of a pissing match at the top of the sport’s food chain?
Garcia’s game is a microcosm of the entire sporting scene: spirited, yet highly politicized and too personality-oriented. There’s also trouble dividing the national sports associations (NSAs) for equestrian, badminton, swimming, billiards, and others.
“Why can’t everyone get along for the sake of our athletes?” asks the rider who ruled the fabled Tour of Luzon and its iteration—the Marlboro Tour of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao—in the 1970s.
By the way, Jesus turned pro in disgust in 1965 after cycling politics prevented him from representing the country in the Tokyo Olympics the previous year.
The concept of a 64-year-old sports hero adding his voice to end the rancor in cycling circles would seem medieval, if you ask the BMX set of the chain cult.
But Garcia still knows his stuff. He remains committed to cycling as coach and promoter in his native Pangasinan, producer of more pedalling champions than any other province in the archipelago.
He also surveys happenings in his sport keenly as a columnist for Dagupan City’s famous Sunday Punch newspaper. His ultimate dream is to coach the national cycling team someday.
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Garcia believes that, other than boxers, cyclists have a strong chance of giving the Philippines glory in world tournaments and ending the country’s gold-medal drought in the Olympics.
Equipment and nutrition are essential in any sport, he says. “But training holds the key to success.”
Garcia longs for the revival of the old Tour not only because it is a flag-waving, feet-stomping Larry Alcala comic strip on wheels—a true spectacle awaited by the masses.
He wants it snaking through country roads again to discover fresh talent and keep cyclists destined for world competitions in shape.
“When cyclists are eyeing a major competition, they train year-round, keep body and brain in gear,” says Jess, as if the video of his mind plays again to the time when he exulted in another day of triumph on the Tour with a hearty yodel—his trademark as a sports star of his era.  (Garcia, the Tour’s “Singing Cyclist,” cut an album in the ’70s that carried the smash ditty “Buhay Siklista.”—Ed)