Approval of one more mayor needed before north becomes official bike route of Ironman 70.3
Sunrise Events Inc. (SEI) needs the approval of one more mayor before making the northern roads of Cebu the official bike route for this year’s Regent Aguila Energy Drink Ironman 70.3 Asia Pacific Championships.
SEI general manager Princess Galura said only the approval of Christina Garcia Frasco of Liloan is needed to make the route change official. She is confident that Frasco will allow the use of Liloan’s part of the road for the 90-kilometer bike phase of the international triathlon event.
“Our meeting with the mayors were very good, basically all were done when it comes getting their approval and we are set to meet with Mayor Paz (Radaza) to update her on our situation, we also met with the officials of the DPWH so that they can already plan their clearing and cleaning operations in the covered roads,” Galura said.
Galura, in a phone interview with Cebu Daily News, said she successfully met with five mayors in Teresa Alegado (Consolacion), Joel Quiño (Compostela), Nito Durano (Danao), Luigi Quisumbing (Mandaue), and Gerard Villamor (Carmen). All of them gave their permission to use their roads.
According to Galura, Frasco is set to make her announcement today.
Excited
“I am just hoping that Mayor Frasco will support us. I am very optimistic that she will give us the permission to pass through Liloan because when we started Ironman 70.3 in Cebu in 2012, her mother, former Governor Gwen Garcia, gave her full support. And also, we’ve held the XTerra Race in Liloan for a couple of years, too,” Galura said.
In case SEI can’t get the approval of Mayor Frasco, Galura said there’s no chance that they can continue with the plan.
According to Galura, a lot of triathletes are already excited with the route change.
“We’ve talked to a lot of triathletes, and they highly recommend going north because that is where they practice riding every weekend,” she said. “This race course will be very beautiful and scenic once it is fully finalized. It’s the chance for Cebu to showcase its northern part and to be able to let the foreign triathletes see how Cebuanos live their everyday lives. It’s going to be a very different scene, unlike in the city where there’s a lot of buildings. In the north, we can breathe fresher air and we can see a lot of trees and scenic areas.”
For the past six years, the Cebu South Coastal Road has been used for the bike course of the international triathlon event. Cebu City Mayor Tommy Osmeña, however, denied last week SEI’s application to use the road this year due to traffic congestion concerns.
The mayor explained that the CSCR is important for motorists since there is an ongoing construction of an underpass along Natalio Bacalso Avenue in Mambaling.