PHILCYCLING president Abraham ‘Bambol’ Tolentino welcomes PSC chief Richard ‘Dickie’ Bachmann in the Asian BMX Freestyle and Racing Championships Sunday at the Tagaytay City BMX and Skateboard Park. | PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF PHILCYCLING
The Integrated Cycling Federation of the Philippines has offered an early bid to again host the Asian BMX Championships in 2025 as a prelude to its bigger target of the Philippines becoming the first Asian country to host an International Cycling Union BMX World Cup in the same year.
Cycling head and Philippine Olympic Committee president Abraham "Bambol" Tolentino made the offer to Asian Cycling Confederation secretary general Onkar Singh and UCI management committee member Datuk Amarjit Singh of Malaysia on the final day of the 2023 Asian BMX Championships for Freestyle and Racing at the Tagaytay City BMX Park on Sunday.
"With the success of this year's Asian BMX championships, Tagaytay City is declaring its bid not only for the continental championships but also for the UCI World Cup in 2025," said Tolentino, also the mayor of Tagaytay City.
More than 200 athletes and officials from nine Asian countries, including riders as young as nine years old who competed in the Challenge events, converged for the three-day championships that was the last qualifier for the cycling discipline for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
For the country to host the World Cup, Tolentino said the current BMX track has to be modified.
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"Innovations on the current BMX track would be implemented, especially on raising the start ramp from its present five-meter height to the world championships and World Cup standard of eight meters," he said.
Plans to build a V-shaped start ramp — five meters and eight meters — would be implemented soon, he said.
"But hosting the Asian championships and the World Cup would have to be in the first five months of the year when the rains and the Tagaytay fog are scant," he said.
The ACC and UCI officials as well as foreign commissaires were all praises of the track and the organization of the championships and agreed in principle on Tolentino's proposal for 2025.
Onkar Singh said he expects more Asian countries to take part in 2025 as he witnessed first-hand the high standard of the track as well as the efficiency of the local organizing committee.
A UCI World Cup of BMX attracts no less than male and female riders from no less than 40 countries.
