Road repairs ruin Le Tour’s kick-off leg
LUCENA CITY — Heavy traffic is now almost everywhere. The road repairs along nearby Tiaong which was not coordinated to the 2016 Le Tour de Filipinas officials caused massive traffic yesterday that it reduced the kick off stage of the annual bikathon to a warm-up race.
The abrupt end to the race that started smoothly in Antipolo drew harsh words from almost all riders who prepared so hard for the event only to see their efforts go down the drain.
Officials decided to end the 148.9 kilometer Antipolo-Lucena race since riders had to negotiate rough and narrow roads coupled with a terrible oncoming traffic jam.
With the second wave about to catch up the 31-man main group, Chief Commissaire Peter Tomlinson had no other recourse but to call off the race, the first time Le Tour stopped a stage in its seven-year history.
“Yung road repairs, that was uncoordinated with the organizers. We were caught by surprise so nagdecide si Comm 1 (Tomlinson) to stop the race,” said Commissaire 3 Lorenzo Lomibao Jr. who also added that the organizers inspected the stage four times, with the last ocular happening six days ago.
“It was really unfortunate because after that stretch, dirediretso na,” he added.
It was indeed unfortunate as two Filipinos – Cebu Kopiko’s Jhunvie Pagnanawon and Ronndel Hualda – were in the 31-man lead group.
The lead group, which held a lead of one minute over the trailing peloton, was initially just composed of 10 riders for most parts of the race but the riders slowly piled on due to the building traffic.
“Sayang naman kasi dalawa na kami ng kakampi ko na nakauna. Pero ganun talaga eh,” said Mier after the race. “Siguro babakbakan pa rin namin sa mga susunod na karera.”
Also in that lead group is defending champion Thomas Lebas who likewise expressed disappointment with the decision.
“It was very dangerous because of the traffic, I think it was a good decision, but for my team it’s a problem because we already had four in the breakaway so it was a good situation for us,” he said.
The general classification was reduced to only three stages with just the King of the Mountain and the Sprint categories being decided in the first stage.