MVP jacks up ‘Tour’ purses

CLARK FIELD, Pampanga — The purse for the top individual winners in the Tour of Luzon have been ramped up big time.

This was revealed Monday night by race organizers Patrick Gregorio of Duckworld PH and Arrey Perez, the chief regulatory officer of Metro Pacific Tollways Corporation.

“Somebody called us and told us to announce this tonight. We are just the messengers of this special announcement,” Gregorio said during the VIP and Media Night at Hilton Clark.

“He was the one to finalize the race,” Gregorio added.

That “He” Gregorio was referring to turned out to be sports godfather Manny Pangilinan, the man called MVP whose Metro Pacific Investments Corporation is taking the lead in staging the ongoing eight-stage race.

“I want to add my personal money for the individual top winners,” Gregorio said, quoting the sports-loving tycoon.

With that, the revised cash prize for the individual champion is now pegged at P1 million, half a million more from the original amount.

The runner-up will now pocket P500,000, from the previous P400,000 while the third-placer will now get P350,000 — up by 50,000.

The prizes for the fourth to tenth spots have also been increased.

There’s no word yet whether Pangilinan will also raise the cash rewards in the overall team classification, which is placed at P1 million.

With Pangilinan delighted with the way the Tour is being staged, don’t be surprised if he decides to do the same thing.

Stage 7 will be a 15.2-kilometer Lingayen to Labrador team trial on Wednesday while Stage 8 will be the much-awaited Lingayen to Baguio 177.54-kilometer trek on Thursday.