Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) president Abraham Tolentino laid the groundwork for the country’s active return to track cycling during the International Cycling Union (UCI) 193rd Congress held in Zurich, Switzerland over the weekend.
A brand-new UCI-standard indoor 250-meter velodrome is on the rise in Tagaytay City and is expected to be operational early in the second quarter of 2025.
Negotiations with the UCI, including with its president, David Lappartient, have started.
“The UCI provides support to all its member nations and I’m glad that with the velodrome in Tagaytay City, the Philippines could kickstart its return to active track cycling,” Tolentino said in a news release on Sunday.
Tolentino, also the president of the national sports association PhilCycling, said the support would come through the UCI’s Solidarity and Emerging Countries Commission and Program.
He also established deeper links between the UCI and Southeast Asia, particularly with his Indonesian counterpart, Raja Sapta Oktohari.
Tolentino, Oktohari and Lappartient are presidents of their respective national Olympic committees and cycling federations.
Lappartient has also announcing his candidacy to become the next president of the International Olympic Committee to replace retiring Thomas Bach.
“The opportunities to continuously link PhilCycling not only with the UCI but with the rest of the world were present on the congress floor,” Tolentino said.
The Tagaytay City mayor told an interview with TV2 Euro that the POC is fully behind Lappartient’s candidacy in the IOC.
The Philippines has a special part in the career of Lappartient who, as a young international commissaire for road and track, was part of the panel that supervised the 1995 Asian cycling championships at Amoranto Velodrome in Quezon City and Subic in Zambales.
Tolentino also told the UCI that the Philippines has escalated its international campaign in road that started with a full-complement (men and women) team to the Asian championships in Kazakhstan last June and a six-rider team to the Le Tour de Langkawi which flagged off Sunday in Malaysia. (PNA)
