sometimes its nice to read another cyclists perspective on the on goings of a bike race. Here is one blog i found written by headless spider noel who is a memebr of the pinoyroadies.org
karera sa luneta
Monday, 18 February 2008 3:55 pm by noelposted in cycling, people, places | tags: bike, cycling, race
yesterday was pretty unusual for me. i had to wake up early on a sunday to help out lito man the rudy project booth at the first leg of the 2008 hitachi national grand prix criterium race in luneta. he rarely asks for favors so why the heck not? that’s a no brainer. its a cycling race after all.
it was mostly cloudy and cool and there’s a breeze every now and then. a great day for racing. we set up the booth pretty quickly (i love these modular things) and had some take-out breakfast from a nearby bee house.
people started to pour in at around 7:00am. the road (maria orosa) was closed at around 7:30 and the first of three races started around 8:00. the route starts from m. orosa, right to tm kalaw, right at roxas boulevard, right at padre burgos and then right again to m. orosa.
bisikletaguy aka raymond was in the first race. i met this guy online at pinoy roadies and i introduced myself as “headless”. i’m glad i finally got to meet him.
i saw two women participating in the race. its great to see women join races and they were good too! lito and i were just saying that judging by the way they ride, they’d drop us five minutes into a race, 10 minutes tops. i truly hope that there would be more women who would take up the sport. cycling is not exclusive to men. you are already winners ladies. sorry guys, no pictures.
there were a couple of incidents in the race. nothing major though. one of the racers hit a cyclist bystander who’s bike wheel was protruding out onto the road. the racer went down and there were shouts from the crowd. it happened near where our booth was. another incident happened somewhere near roxas boulevard so we didn’t get to witness it. although we did see the rider who went down at the registration booth getting medical help. thankfully, he doesn’t appear to be seriously injured.
i was able to talk to vic espiritu for a little bit. yes! victor espiritu. he came back from round 3 of the track world cup in los angeles, california last february 1. i don’t think he’d remember me so lito sort of re-introduced me. okay, i blabbled a bit but hey, can you blame me? the whole team arrived on their bikes during the second race. the picture was taken when they were signing up for the pro-am race.
the first time i saw victor in action was during the baguio leg of the 1997 tour of luzon and i was amazed at his climbing skills. i still have a hard time climbing and its something that i really need to practice on. maybe this weekend. anyway, the next time i met him was when lito introduced me at the rudy project offices a couple of years ago.
this race showed, to me at least, his and the team’s years of experience in racing. i don’t think they were there to win the race but i do believe that if they wanted to they could. i would think that it was a fantastic experience for the amateurs — racing with the pros. its a great opportunity to learn important lessons especially if you’re an aspiring racer.
and then there were the bikes. there were lots of bikes! i got a chance to walk around and drool at these two-wheeled marvels. i got to see a pinarello prince, cannondale’s system six and super six bikes, a colnago dream, a cinelli carbon bike (i didn’t get the name), there were several vellums in attendance (i think the whole philippine vellum team was there), and a couple of italian steel bikes whose names escape me at the moment. giants and cannondales abound too. and of course there are the classic steel bikes. i didn’t get to see a fixie though. the picture shows espiritu’s cannondale system six which he aptly named sixto.
the third and last race — the pro-am series — finished at around 1:00pm. i didn’t stay for the awarding ceremonies any longer as i had to head back home. robin still needed some tutoring for his exams. back to reality.
the next stage is in tarlac sometime in march. i don’t think i will be able to go there.
all in all, it was a great day!
bisikletaguy aka raymond at the start line in the first race.
there was a dragon dance in between the first and the second race.
the rudy project booth was always surrounded by bikes and there was a steady stream of inquiries during the whole morning.
these are pictures of the pro-am race taken at the corner of orosa and tm kalaw.
i was able to get a 21-second video clip at the latter part of the pro-am race taken at the same corner. i took it with my cell so its small and in in 3gp format. you can download it here.
18 February 2008 4:16 pm at 4:16 pm
Very nicely written report there, Noel. I’m impressed by the modesty and sincerity of your writing.
18 February 2008 5:09 pm at 5:09 pm
thanks bro.
19 February 2008 4:54 am at 4:54 am
Thanks for this mate.
19 February 2008 12:21 pm at 12:21 pm
no problem oz. thanks for visiting.
20 February 2008 9:15 am at 9:15 am
bravo noel…i didnt know you have an interesting blog also…great job…nice report nice fotos..may our tribe of reporters increase…if we wait for newspapers to write our races…man that will take us forever…go to the races..write about the races..promote cycling and our country the Philippines.!!!
21 February 2008 7:05 am at 7:05 am
ey ray! you rock bro! fantastic ride reports. i’ve been into blogging for a few years now but mostly on tech stuff. but lately i’ve been putting almost everything here so it includes my other activities — a large part of which is cycling.
i’d rather hear about cycling from a cyclist than from a newspaper. its more “involved”. more personal and therefore, more interesting. in other words keep those reports coming. you’ll never know and we can make a book out of it someday.