THE PhilCycling National Trials for Road fires off this weekend with 116 cyclists — 98 men and 13 women — battling it out on the roads of the Clark Freeport and Special Economic Zone in Pampanga.
Race weekend features individual time trial (ITT), criterium and massed start.
Saturday features the women’s ITT starting at 8 a.m. over a distance of 17.1 kms.
Half an hour later, 54 men will vie in their own ITT over the 24.6-km loop which will also be the battleground for the road races set on Sunday.
Clark criterium race
The Saturday afternoon criterium will see the same set of riders competing around the 2.3-km perimeter of the Clark Parade Grounds. The women’s race consists of 16 laps and the men’s contest 20 laps with three and four intermediate sprints, respectively, awarding 5, 3, 2, 1 points—doubled in the final lap—to the top four riders.
“We will be witnessing competitive cycling right on Day 1 of the Trials and with the road races set for Sunday, this event is one compact competition,” said Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) and PhilCycling President Abraham Bambol Tolentino.
The races will be staged under guidelines from the Central Luzon Regional Task Force, Office of Civil Defense, Department of Health, Philippine National Police, Province of Pampanga and the Department of Tourism.
All participants have to undergo RT-PCR and Antigen testing. Fans are not allowed at the races backed by Go for Gold, Chooks-to-Go, GAC Motor, Gatorade, Versa, 7-Eleven, Le Tour de Filipinas, 7-Eleven, UBE Express Inc., Powerade, Wilkins, Coca-Cola, Shimano, Bike-X and MadCrank.
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