Fund shortage hits 1997 RI cycling tour
JAKARTA (JP): Financial hitches may force the cancellation of next year's Tour de Indonesia, an international road race cycling championship slated to be held next March, a national cycling official said Monday.
"We should have been able to iron out the financial problems last month if the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Indonesian Cycling Association (ISSI) chairman and the National Sports Council's funding consortium chairman could have been realized during that month. Now everything is hanging in the balance," said Sofyan Rusian, who is ISSI chief of competition affairs.
The 1996 Tour is scheduled to run from March 7 through March 12 from Jakarta to Denpasar, covering more than 1,000 kilometers. It will be divided into nine stages.
The organizers are planning to invite top cyclists from the Netherlands, Italy, France, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand and Vietnam.
Host Indonesia itself is to field all of its seasoned cyclists, including those who represented the country at last year's SEA Games in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
The road race is to be revived after a six-year lapse. The last Tour was held in 1991 and covered the same route.
Sofyan said the race would cost at least Rp 1.5 billion. "The funds are needed to provide air tickets, board and lodging facilities and prize money for the riders among other things," he said.
ISSI would be very disappointed if the tour was canceled since it would have served as one of the warm-ups for national cyclists before next year's SEA Games here.
"The dates for the Tour are quite timely, because it is expected that foreign riders who will take part in the Tour de Langkawi in Malaysia, scheduled for Feb. 19 to March 2, will be willing to move on to Jakarta for the Tour de Indonesia, given the proximity and the short time difference between the Malaysian race and the Indonesian event," Sofyan said.
He said if the race has to be postponed, the organizers would have to spend more funds on the air tickets for the foreign riders.
Mountainbiking
ISSI also announced that the 12 cyclists, 19 men and 2 women, being groomed for next month's Asia-Pacific mountainbike championships in Taipei will have a warm-up outing before the Asian meet when they compete in the Gudang Garam mountainbike race to be held in the tourist resort of Toyabungkah, Kintamani, Bali, from Nov. 16 to Nov. 17.
The cyclists are Sugianto, Amir Mahmud, Zanily Siswanto, Ferinanto, Marta Mufreni, Soni. M. Haryadi, Ferry Sonic, Sanni Widiyansah, Anantas, Syamsul Bakri and the two female riders, Risa Susanti and Sri Sudarni. (bas)