Missing Marlboro

The Marlboro Tour days were long gone. The names that so frequently occupy the sports pages during those days barely make it to today’s sports sections. Espiritu, Davadilla, Guieb, Domingo, Dolosa et al. These cyclists, these athletes, with their aerodynamic helmets, wind glasses and heat-oppressed faces, I admit I had a hard time recognizing their faces.

But I don’t mistake their respective names with somebody else’s. Not to a college ball player. Not to some up-and-coming boxer. Not to anyone’s. Doing so gravely betrays the time spent of repeatedly looking at the television coverage’s leader board updates thus leaving a mark in my then young and shallow collection of athletes ‘names.

Comparing these local sports heroes to today’s generation of cyclists is a popularity mismatch.

I completely understand that Marlboro is just the major sponsor of these twin-wheeled races and even with its support withdrawal, the race is continued to be staged each year since. Of course, there were a few major sponsors that filled the void left by Marlboro but none were able to salvage or even relish the great success of the previous partnership.

And each of the succeeding editions of this summer sport spectacle also continued to decline not only in stages but also in the public’s immediate awareness. There were fewer columns and smaller photos of the event in the papers today dedicated to the cycling event. No TV station broadcast the races either. To sum it up, I think the tour is sadly drifting into oblivion if it had not already.

Honestly speaking, I haven’t followed any of the races anymore. The last time I truly and religiously followed it was in 2004 when Enrique Domingo had all but won the tour only to fade in the last stages. It was won by Lloyd Reynante. I even had the effort to cut newspaper clippings of it which to this day still steadily sits in an old clear book.

The yearly tour will continue. It will strive. But matching even its most recent of glory days isn’t in the horizon. It hasn’t passed the time trials yet. Soon, another summer would end without it making a significant buzz.