BACOLOD CITY, Negros Occidental, Philippines – For the first time in 19 years since it started overseas, the Tour of the Fireflies Philippine leg will see two divisions this Sunday, 10 January, as thousands of bikers pedal for frontliners, clean air and safer streets. (READ also: A different Tour: 6th TOTF in Himamaylan City not only for the suffering)
Race organizers told DNX the 6th Tour of the Fireflies will be split into the open and advanced categories that will take riders over a total of close to 80 kilometers across paved city streets and rough hacienda roads to the upland sub-village of Bulod.
The open, as the name implies, can include neophyte and experienced riders while the advanced will take participants on a longer and rougher trail.
The official routes released by organizers in Himamaylan showed the following individual routes by division:
- Open. A 35-kilometer route through city streets and national highways.
Bikers will pedal from Taytay Tanate in the village of Aguisan near the city’s border with Binalbagan town from which they will take a left to Crossing Payao via Nabalian, pass through Cabanbanan and Libacao villages then go to Payao to Carabalan via Cabadiangan then proceed to Villages 3 down to 1 and Talaban before finishing at Mosser Compound in Village 4 in front of the Himamaylan City Hall.
- Advanced. This division, also known as the endurance, will have a longer route of 43.4 kilometers that will take bikers on a rough trail up to the sub-village of Bulod.
Like in the open division, bikers will start from Taytay Tanate then pass through the old public market going to Carabalan village en route to Crossing Bulod going to Bulod Elementary School and a stopover in the sitio itself.
