Cambitas m’bike race fires off this weekend

THE newly opened Cambitas Nature Park in Barangay Babag Dos, Cebu City will hold its first ever mountain bike competition aptly dubbed “Cambitas Mountain Bike Challenge 2012” this coming weekend.

Organized by Gene Faelnar of Gene’s Mountain Bike tours, race director Joel Baring and Joey Seno, the activity aims to revive mountain bike competition in Cebu. The last major mountain bike race here was held in 2009 and Faelnar wanted to revive the sport especially now that more Cebuanos have acquired mountain bikes.

“A lot of Cebuanos are now using mountain bikes as a source of exercise and we wanted Cambitas to be their haven for biking since the place has a lot of potential for mountain bike racing,” said Faelnar during yesterday’s official launching of the two-day race at the Yayoy’s Grill and Resto Bar.

According to Faelnar, the race will serve as a seeding level to enable him to categorize the racers for future events.

Faelnar and his group are expecting around 100 bikers to compete in the downhill, folding offroad and cross country races.

Categories in the downhill event are open, hardtail, expert, intermediate and beginners while open, beginners and 35-above categories will be featured in the cross country race which will cover 35 kilometers.

The open category will have 20 laps, 14 laps for the 35-above and 11 laps for the beginners division. Each lap consists of 1.7k in distance. The folding offroad race will be held at the plain and grassy area of the race route.

Registration fee is P250 inclusive of a jersey and P50 without the race jersey. Cash prizes will be given to the top three winners in each category while gift packs will be awarded to those who pay a P50 registration fee.

A vehicle will be stationed at Waka-Waka Grill near the AFP Central Command in Lahug at 6-7 a.m. to transport racers.

The downhill event will be held on Saturday while the cross country race will be on Sunday. Registration deadline will be on race day.  /CORRESPONDENT DALE G. ROSAL