NEXT year, the ninth edition of the Le Tour de Filipinas road cycling races could extend to five days and into the Visayas.
There are clamors to expand the numbers of days and the inclusion of more routes that will need to be discussed.
Chief organizer Donna May Lina said this after Tuesday’s awarding ceremonies at the Queen Margarette Hotel in Lucena City, Quezon.
“We will have to ask for permission from UCI and access to do that because people have been clamoring for five days,” said Lina.
UCI, the world governing body for cycling, will have to study if a five-day race is possible because the LTDF is usually held right before the Le Tour de Langkawi in Malaysia.
Lina said the races next year will have routes in the Visayas region and there are plans to have the finish line located away from urban areas.
She added that traffic was a challenge in the last day for the race, which took riders from Daet to Lucena.
As heavy traffic greeted riders in Lucena, Korean rider Park Sang Hong was first to reach the finish in the 4th and final stage, while Australian Jai Crawford won the overall crown.
Whitehouse, who was tightly watched all throughout and held the yellow jersey in the first three days, finished at 14th, and was behind by 2:28 in the stage.
Overall, he settled for second, and trailed Crawford by 28 seconds.