Defending champion Dae Yeong Joo of South Korea headlines the list of 89 riders who will take part in the Tour of Luzon, which starts on Wednesday here.
Joo will once again ride for Gapyeong Cycling Team as he looks to replicate last year’s triumph that ended in a close finish, six seconds to be exact in the general classification standings.
Gapyeong is one of six overseas teams that are going to test the mettle of their Filipino counterparts in the second staging of the revived great summer cycling spectacle.
Other foreign teams are Seoul Cycling Team also of South Korea, the Malaysian national team, China’s Shenzhen Kung, Indonesia’s Ponti Wijaya and LCW of the United Arab Emirates.
Notable locals who hope to deny Joo are Jonel Carcueva, Ronald Oranza, Jeremy Lizardo, Jerico Jay Lucero and Rustom Lim, all who made it to the top 10 in the overall standings.
Carcueva will compete for 7-Eleven after helping MPT DriveHub win last year’s team overall crown, Oranza and Lizardo represent Standard Insurance, Lucero is with Go for Gold Philippines and Lim is among the returnees for MPT DriveHub.
Another notables are 7-Eleven’s Mervin Corpuz, who was last year’s Sprint King with MPT DriveHub and was among Joo’s closest pursuers throughout before fading in the last stage to finish 38th.
Also back is Stage 5 winner Joseph Javiniar of Excellent Noodles.
Other local teams are Dreyna Orion Cement and CCN Factory Racing.
Wednesday’s first lap will end in Tagaytay, the second stage is a team time trial from Clark, Pampanga to New Clark City in Capas, Tarlac, followed by New Clark City-Palayan (third stage), Palayan-Bayombong (fourth stage), Santiago-Tuguegarao (fifth stage) and Tuguegarao-Pagudpud (sixth stage).
The seventh stage will be the first individual time trial in Pagudpud-Pagudpud, the eighth stage covers Pagudpud to Paoay, the ninth lap is Laoag-Candon, Candon-Cervantes (10th stage), Candon-San Juan, La Union (11th stage) and Agoo-Mangatarem (12th stage).
The penultimate 13th stage is a second ITT Lingayen-Lingayen before the Tour is decided in the final stage from Lingayen to Baguio.