The Tour of Luzon (TOL; also known as MPTC Tour of Luzon for sponsorship reasons) is an annual professional road bicycle racingstage race held in Luzon, Philippines since 1955 as part of the UCI Asia Tour. It is held in April every year. While the course changes every year, the tour traditionally ends at Rizal Park, Manila, although recently the tour has ended in Baguio after being licensed by the UCI. Established as the Tour of Luzon, the stage race was previously known under various names including the Marlboro Tour, Tour of Calabarzon, Tour Pilipinas and Padyak Pinoy, and Le Tour de Filipinas.
In 1955, the Tour was launched as a four-stage race from Manila to Vigan race won by Antonio Arzala. But, a year later, the race was renamed as the Tour of Luzon and carried the name until 1976 (there was no tour held in 1968, 1970–1972).
The prominent riders included two-time Tour champions Cornelio Padilla, Jr. of Central Luzon and Jose Sumalde of Bicol. However, in 1977, a rift within the PCAP (see below) led to a split of two tours during the said year. However, according to the Padyak Pinoy website, the event organized by Geruncio Lacuesta is recognized on their official list. The tour's name ended by 1978 as Marlboro entered the scene.
1979– 1998: Marlboro Tour
By 1979, Philip Morris became the official sponsor of the tour and the event was named as Marlboro Tour after its cigarette brand Marlboro, a name that is commonly familiar to ardent racers and fans. During these times, the tour expanded its routes, by including cities from Visayas in the leg, with the final laps regularly held at the Quirino Grandstand in Manila.
From 1997-1998, the tour allowed riders from Asia to compete in the event and was sanctioned by the UCI. It also led to Wong Kam-po of Hong Kong to become the first non-Filipino to win the event in 1997, after overtaking 1996 winner Victor Espiritu for the lead in the latter stages.
The format used for the teams are based on provinces with the national team included in the race. It was also the same format when Asian riders participated in the event beginning in 1997.
The 1998 tour was known as the Marlboro Centennial Tour an was organized in line with the Philippine Centennial observances.[1]
In 1999, Marlboro backed out as sponsor following a trend of discouraging tobacco sponsorship of sports events. In 2000, a race under the name Millenium Tour was attempted to be held in May but was cancelled due to budgetary concerns and inability to meet the standards set by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI).[2]
2002 – 2007: Revival
In 2002, the tour was revived after Airfreight 2100 of Bert Lina and Lito Alvarez financed the tour.[3] A four-leg race was held in late-May known as Tour of CALABARZON won by Santy Barnachea. A year later, the tour was renamed as Tour Pilipinas, and held a 17-leg race, the longest since 1998. The tour was won by Arnel Quirimit of Pangasinan.
Ryan Tanguilig won in 2004 in a 10-stage tour. In 2005, the tour was renamed as the Golden Tour 50 @ 05, honoring the 50th anniversary of the Tour. 1998 champion Warren Davadilla, who won the last edition of the Marlboro, was the champion. In 2006, several disputes within the Integrated Cycling Federation of the Philippines led to a short eight stage event dubbed with the Padyak Pinoy name, won by Barnachea.
2009 – 2019: Le Tour de Filipinas
The Padyak Pinoy Tour of Champions was held in 2009.[4] This race was later retroactively designated as the first Le Tour de Filipinas (LTdF)[5]
The first race to be actually be called as the Le Tour de Filipinas was the 2010 race. The event was also reincluded in the UCI Asia Tour. It was last included in the UCI calendar 12 years ago when it was still known as the Marlboro Tour.[6][7] The Le Tour de Filipinas was still backed by Alberto Lina.[8]
The tour was held annually continuously until 2019.[8] The 2020 iteration considered by its organizers as the 11th LTdF was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[9][10][11]
The event dubbed as The Great Revival started on April 24 and will end on May 1, 2025. It is an eight-stage race starting from Laoag and ends in Baguio.[10][13] The organizers aim to have Tour de Luzon reincluded in the UCI calendar.[14]
In the 2016 edition, race organizers had to stop the stage 1 event due to unprecedented road repairs, followed by traffic jams in Tiaong, Quezon, the first in the history of Le Tour de Filipinas.[32]
↑ Staged by the Geruncio Lacuesta, acknowledged father of Philippine bikathoning, after a split among the cyclists and the formation of the Professional Cycling Association of the Philippines (PCAP) with Matias Defensor as president. Garcia won the Mindanao stage, Casta the Visayas stage and Gorospe the Luzon stage. It was Lacuesta's last tour as the PCAP took over center stage two years later in 1979. This tour is considered official by the current organization.
↑ No regular tour held; instead the perk speed tour was run Feb. 9-12 over four laps aimed at producing the first cyclist(s) to achieve an average 40 km/h. Starting in Manila and winding up in Olongapo City, the speed test measured 405.8 km.s. Rumin Salamante won the event in 10 hrs. 11 mins., 10 secs.
↑ In 1997, the Tour allowed cyclists from the neighboring Asian countries to participate in the event. Wong became the first foreign cyclist to win the event. Asian riders were allowed to participate in 1998.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
2025 Tour of Luzon 
Antonio Arzala (PHI)
Dae Yeong Joo (KOR)
