“WE’RE expecting to surpass the 10,000 participants we had when we last hosted Larga Pilipinas in 2018,” said Larga operations director Snow Badua during Thursday’s race launch at the Red Dynasty Seafood and Hotpot Restaurant in Manila.

A TOTAL of 10 professional teams and over 10,000 cyclists seeing action in the category events will spice up the Larga Pilipinas when it returns with a short but sweet six-stage race unfurling in Cabanatuan on Aug. 2 and ending in Baguio City on Aug. 7.

“We’re expecting to surpass the 10,000 participants we had when we last hosted Larga Pilipinas in 2018,” said Larga operations director Snow Badua during Thursday’s race launch at the Red Dynasty Seafood and Hotpot Restaurant in Manila.

“We’re calling it a people’s race and a race for all so everybody, from newbies to pros, can participate,” he added.

Larga chair Froi Dayco said there are five teams that had already confirmed their participation — Go for Gold, Excellent Noodles, Standard Insurance-Navy, D-Reyna Orion Cement, and reigning Tour of Luzon team champion Metro Pacific Tollways Drivehub.

“We’re open to foreign teams also if they want to,” he said.

Race chief commissaire Sunshine Joy Vallejos said Larga would be a climber’s paradise since four stages will be ascents.

The first two stages will be relatively flat ones — 197-kilometer Cabanatuan-Cabanatuan Stage One and 146-km Cabanatuan-Mangaldan Stage Two — before they go climbing the rest of the way via the 146-km Mangaldan-Bayombong Stage Three, 95.2-km Bayombong-Banaue Four, 83.1-km Banague-Sagada Stage Five and , finally, 142-km Sagada-Baguio Stage Six.

“This is practically a race for climbers,” said Ms. Vallejos, who is in charge of PhilCycling’s elite races.

They will navigate a total of 809km of flat, rolling hills and numerous ascents in this event backed by Viva Premier Gaming, 888 Horsemen Group Inc., Red Dynasty Seafood and Hotpot Restaurant, Phenom Sportswear, Starhorse Shipping Lines, Chickyfam, Midas Smart Resources Corp., PCSO Scracth it, Go for Gold, Surecom Wireless Communication and Colbi’s Best and sanctioned by PhilCycling.

Mr. Dayco also announced they will implement a rule where in only three of the seven riders per team will be counted instead of the usual four done in past races like the Tour of Luzon and the defunct Ronda Pilipinas.

Also, participants will brace not just the unpredictable road conditions and searing heat, but also another of nature’s elements — the rains.

“We’re hoping and praying to the cycling gods to give us good weather this August,” said Mr. Dayco. — Joey Villar