Tour of Luzon cycling race returns with eight-stage competition

March 7, 2025 | 1:54pm

MANILA, Philippines — Cycling’s fabled Tour of Luzon will have another great revival.

And it will come via the much-awaited eight-stage, 1,050-kilometer race that will be flagged off from up North in Laoag on April 24 and conclude in mountaintop Baguio on May 1.

“It can’t die,” said Pato Gregorio, head of the organizing DuckWorld PH, during Friday’s event launch at the Meralco Lighthouse in Ortigas, Pasig, referring to the legendary race that came to life in 1955, closed in the late 90s and resuscitated in 2002.

The sport’s summer spectacle was shelved again during the pandemic and could have been lost in time anew if not for the intercession of Gregorio, whose ambitious vision breathed life to it once more.

“We conceptualized it more than a year ago because of our chairman (Manny V. Pangilinan), who kept saying ‘I want to see a Filipino or a Philippine team in the Tour de France.’ Even back then, MVP kept saying it repeatedly,” said Gregorio.

“That’s why when we proposed this project to MVP, he said yes right away,” he added.

The stars aligned since then as Metro Pacific Tollways Corporation, a company under the MVP group, through its chief regulatory officer Arrey Perez and other groups like the Philippine Sports Commission chaired by Richard Bachmann and Philippine Olympic Committee and PhilCycling chief Abraham Tolentino have made the tour’s return a reality.

Already, organizers are expecting around 120 to 150 riders from 15 to 20 teams including favorites Navy Standard Insurance, 7-Eleven, Excellent Noodles, Victoria cycling team and the national under-23 team, all vying for the P1 million purse for the team champion and P500,000 prize for the individual winner.

A team each from Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand are also seeing action, according to race commissaire Jun Lomibao.

The race will be unfurled via the 170km Laoag to Laoag Stage One, which pass through the popular Bangui Windmills, Pagudpud and the Patapat viaduct and the 80km Team Trial Trial in Stage Two from Laoag to Vigan, Ilocos Sur the next day.

From there, there would be the 170km Vigan-Agoo Stage Three on April 26, 150km Agoo-Clark Stage Four on April 27, 120km Clark-Clark (via New Clark City) Stage Five on April 28, 150km Clark-Lingayen Stage Six on April 29 and 30km Lingayen-Lingayen individual time trial Stage Seven on April 30.

Closing it is the 180km Lingayen-Baguio Stage Eight on May 1, a lap where cyclists will ride through the dreaded mountain passes of Benguet where they could make or break their chance for glory.

Gregorio also dedicated the race to the late Bert Lina, whose company Air21 once revived the Tour of Luzon more than two decades ago.

"This is for him," said Gregorio of Lina.

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