The newly-revived Tour of Luzon started on Thursday following opening ceremonies on Wednesday in Paoay, Ilocos Norte.
Dubbed "Great Revival," the Tour of Luzon features 119 cyclists from 17 teams, who will take on the gruelling 1,074.90-kilometer race.
The race starts on Thursday with the 190.70-kilometer Paoay-Paoay Stage 1.
This will be followed by the 68.39-km Paoay-Vigan team time trial Stage 2, 130.33-km Vigan-San Juan Stage 3, 162.97-km Agoo-Clark Stage 4, 166.65 Clark-Clark Stage 5, 168.19 Clark-Lingayen Stage 6, 15.14-km individual time trial Labrador-Lingayen Stage 7 and finally, the queen Stage 8 which is a 172.53-km from Lingayen to the Scout Hill finish inside Camp John Hay in Baguio City.
A special fly by at the New Clark City where an Executive Race will be staged in an out-and-back route in Clark on April 27.
The Mabalacat City government announced that a portion of the MacArthur Highway from Barangay Tabun to Barangay Lakandula will be closed on April 27 from 10:30 to 11:30 am for the special stage.
Competing for the top plum are PhilCycling-registered UCI continental teams Standard Insurance Philippines, Victoria Sports Pro Cycling Team, 7-Eleven Click Roadbike Philippines and Go For Gold.
These teams are joined by the Philippines Under-23 Tom N Toms, Excellent Noodles, DReyna Orion Cement, Dandex T-Prime Cycling Team, Exodus Army, MPT Drive Hub Cycling Team, 1 Team Visayas and One Cycling Mindanao.
Also seeing action are four foreign teams, namely CCN Factory HK from Hong Kong, Malaysia Pro Cycling, Bryton Racing Team from Taiwan and Gapyeong Cycling Team from South Korea.
The Tour of Luzon: Great Revival was conceptualized by DuckWorld PH in partnership with the Metro Pacific Tollways last year.
The sports event is expected to address immense untapped opportunities for the cycling community in the Philippines and re-establish the Philippines on the cycling map.
The Tour of Luzon (1955 – 1976) is a professional road bicycle race held annually as part of the UCI Asia Tour. It was previously known under various names including the Marlboro Tour (1979 – 1998), Tour of Calabarzon (2002 – 2007), and Le Tour de Filipinas (2009 – 2019).
The 2020 iteration, considered by its organizers as the 11th Le Tour de Filipinas, was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Among the prominent winners of the competition were Cornelio Padilla, Jr., Jose Sumalde, Victor Espiritu, Santy Barnachea. Arnel Quirimit, and Wong Kam-po of Hong Kong, the first non-Filipino to win the event in 1997.