By TITO S. TALAO
Back-to-back Marlboro Tour champion Carlo Guieb — untouchable in the mountains and indefatigable on the flats during his fabled career — still remembers one stage every summer in the early ’80s where he felt most vulnerable.
It was a sodden, boggy, and slippery stretch, with ankle-deep mud plastered over a serpentine trail that made it hellishly challenging for bike tires and cycling shoes.
The section, located in Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte, is known to locals as Patapat —roughly translating to “belt” in the Ilocano dialect. Riders and even motor vehicles, including passenger jeepneys used as media transport, dreaded the race’s arrival there on the northward swing to Cagayan.
Guieb, who reigned in 1993 and 1994 and became only the fourth rider in local Tour history to win back-to-back titles, chuckles at the memory.
“Parang mga logs lang ata na inihiga don,” recalled Guieb, now part of the race crew for the revived MPTC Tour of Luzon 2026.
The rider from Bagabag, Nueva Vizcaya, recounted having to dismount, walk cautiously in spike shoes, and guide his bike by hand while navigating wooden beams laid as makeshift bridges over shallow yet yawning ravines and streams.
“Parang mahuhulog nga ’yung gulong mo sa mga butas,” Guieb said, laughing.
That muddy path is gone, replaced by a panoramic elevated coastal viaduct stretching 1.3 kilometers and overlooking Pasaleng Bay, part of the West Philippine Sea.
The Patapat viaduct now links the Maharlika Highway in the Ilocos Region to the Cagayan Valley Region, connecting the municipality of Pagudpud to Cagayan province—transforming the once-feared route into a scenic training ground for cyclists of all levels.
On Monday, South Korean rider Min Kyeong Ho of the Seoul Cycling Team won Stage 4 of the MPTC Tour of Luzon, completing the 223.7-kilometer leg from Tuguegarao to Pagudpud in 5 hours and 12 minutes.
“Malaki na ang pinagbago ng karera ngayon, lalo na doon sa Pagudpud at sa bayan namin sa Bagabag; sementado na yung mga akyatin sa bundok,” Guieb said. “Di katulad noon na sabi nga doon sa awit… ‘Alikabok dito, alikabok (buhangin) doon…’”
Guieb was referring to the composition of 1973 Tour of Luzon champion Jess Garcia Jr. of Mangaldan, Pangasinan, who wrote and recorded “Buhay Siklista,” regarded as the unofficial anthem of Filipino cyclists.
He might have gone on to sing a few more bars from Garcia’s ode to the sport, but another stage race was about to begin—and tales of Patapat and Pagudpud once again faded into the background for Carlo Guieb.
