Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino laid the ground work for the country’s active return to track cycling during the International Cycling Union (UCI) 193rd Congress during the weekend in Zurich.

A brand-new UCI-standard indoor 250-meter velodrome is on the rise in Tagaytay City and is expected to be operational early in the second quarter of 2025 and negotiations with the UCI, including with the international federation’s president, David Lappartient, has started in earnest.

“The UCI provides support to all its member nations and I’m glad that with the velodrome in Tagaytay City, the Philippines could kickstart its return to active track cycling,” said Tolentino, who is also the president of the national sports association for cycling, PhilCycling.

The support, Tolentino said, would come through the UCI’s Solidarity and Emerging Countries Commission and Program.

Tolentino also established deeper links between the UCI and Southeast Asia, particularly with his Indonesian counterpart, Raja Sapta Oktohari.

Tolentino, Oktohari and Lappartient are presidents of their respective national Olympic committees and cycling federations, with Lappartient announcing his candidacy to become the next president of the International Olympic Committee to replace Thomas Bach, who’s bound to retire.

“The opportunities to continuously link PhilCycling not only with the UCI but with the rest of the world were present on the congress floor,” said Tolentino, who told an interview with TV2 Euro that the POC is fully behind Lappartient’s candidacy in the IOC.

The Philippines has a special part in the career of Lappartient, who as a young international commissaire for road and track, was part of the panel that supervised the 1995 Asian cycling championships at the Amoranto Velodrome and Subic.

Tolentino also told the UCI that the Philippines has escalated its international campaign in road that started with a full-complement (men and women) team to the Asian championships in Kazakhstan last June and a six-rider team to the Le Tour de Langkawi which flagged off Sunday in Malaysia.