For more than 70 years the Philippines has had a national bicycle tour. It has changed its name many times. It has stopped and started again. It is still raced today.
This guide follows the race from the first run from Manila to Vigan in 1955 to the Tour of Luzon revival of 2025 and 2026. The champions of every year are listed at the end.
1955: Manila to Vigan
The story starts in 1955 with a four-stage race of 418 kilometers from Manila to Vigan. Antonio Arzala won it. The founder of the race was a lawyer, Atty. Geruncio Lacuesta.
Lacuesta wrote his own account of those years in 1965. He recalled that the first race was held for the Ilocos Sur Tobacco Festival and was staged with 250 pesos.
The Tour of Luzon, 1956 to 1976
In 1956 the race became the Tour of Luzon. That first edition covered 1,057 kilometers, and Arzala won again. He took a third title in 1959, the record for the early era.
Stages were called laps in those days. Lacuesta names the Manila Times as an early sponsor, with San Miguel Brewery from 1957 and Coca-Cola from 1958. In 1961 the Tour had its first foreign team, from Korea.
The early champions came from several provinces. Lacuesta gives Arzala’s home as Laguna. Rodrigo Abaquita and Jose Moring Jr. were from Cebu.
Rufino Gabot, Mamerto Eden and Edmundo De Guzman were from Pangasinan. The Philippine News Agency and the Inquirer have both written about that province’s long run of champions.
Jose Sumalde won in 1964 and 1965. Cornelio Padilla, who rode the 1964 Olympics, won in 1966 and 1967.
The race did not run every year. No Tour is listed for 1968, or for 1970 to 1972. The 1969 race was called the Tour ng Filipinas, and the 1974 race was a tour of Luzon and the Visayas. Modesto Bonzo won the last Tour of Luzon of this era in 1976.
Two tours in 1977, then the Marlboro years
In 1977 there were two rival tours. Manuel Reynante won the Tour ng Pilipinas. Jesus Garcia Jr., the champion of 1973, won Lacuesta’s Marlboro Tour ng Pilipinas. The 1978 race ran as the Perk Speed Tour and went to Rumin Salamante.
From 1979 to 1998 Philip Morris sponsored the race under the Marlboro name. These were the years of the Marlboro Tour.
Several riders won it twice: Jacinto Sicam in 1981 and 1982, Renato Dolosa in 1992 and 1995, and Carlo Guieb in 1993 and 1994. Reynante added the 1980 title to his win of 1977.
In 1997 Wong Kam-po of Hong Kong became the first foreign winner. The last edition was the Marlboro Centennial Tour of 1998, won by Warren Davadilla. No tour is listed from 1999 to 2001.
New names, 2002 to 2009
Airfreight 2100 and Bert Lina revived the race from 2002. It came back as the FedEx Tour of Calabarzon, won by Santi Barnachea. In 2003 it was the Air21 Tour Pilipinas. In 2005 it was the Golden Tour 50@05, which Davadilla won seven years after his Marlboro title.
The Padyak Pinoy name followed in 2006 and 2007. There was no race in 2008. The 2009 race, the Padyak Pinoy Tour of Champions, went to Joel Calderon.
Le Tour de Filipinas, to 2019
The 2009 race is now counted as the first Le Tour de Filipinas. The tour ran under that name every year from 2010 to 2019, and riders from abroad won most editions. They came from Ireland, Iran, France, Kazakhstan, Australia and the Netherlands.
Three Filipinos won in those years: Baler Ravina in 2012, Mark Galedo in 2014 and El Joshua Cariño in 2018. The 2020 edition was canceled, and no edition is listed from 2021 to 2024.
Ronda Pilipinas, 2011 to 2022
Ronda Pilipinas was a separate race, backed by LBC and run with 3Q Sports. It began in 2011, when Santi Barnachea won. He won it again in 2015.
Jan Paul Morales and Ronald Oranza were its leading names in the years that followed. The 2016 Ronda was run as three legs, and Morales won two of them and Oranza one. Morales won again in 2017, and Oranza in 2018.
Francisco Mancebo of Spain won in 2019, George Oconer in 2020 and Ronald Lomotos in 2022. In March 2025 Spin.ph wrote that “Ronda hasn’t held a race since 2022.”
The Tour of Luzon returns
The old name came back in 2025 as the Tour of Luzon “Great Revival”. Duckworld PH organized it with MPTC, and PhilCycling, the national federation, sanctioned it.
The 2025 race ran from April 24 to May 1, with 8 stages and 1,074.9 kilometers. Joo Dae Yeong of Korea won. Jan Paul Morales was second, only 6 seconds behind.
In 2026 the Tour grew to 14 stages, from April 29 to May 13. Nikita Shulchenko of Russia won, and Nash Lim was the top Filipino in fourth place. Both revival Tours had stages at Clark, as our guide to Pampanga in Philippine cycling describes.
The champions, year by year
These lists follow the Wikipedia record of each race. Where a row says no race is listed, that record shows none for the year.
Manila to Vigan and the Tour of Luzon, 1955 to 1976
| Year | Race | Champion |
|---|---|---|
| 1955 | Manila–Vigan | Antonio Arzala |
| 1956 | Tour of Luzon | Antonio Arzala |
| 1957 | Tour of Luzon | Rufino Gabot |
| 1958 | Tour of Luzon | Mamerto Eden |
| 1959 | Tour of Luzon | Antonio Arzala |
| 1960 | Tour of Luzon | Rodrigo Abaquita |
| 1961 | Tour of Luzon | Jose Moring Jr. |
| 1962 | Tour of Luzon | Edmundo De Guzman |
| 1963 | Tour of Luzon | Gonzalo Recodos |
| 1964 | Tour of Luzon | Jose Sumalde |
| 1965 | Tour of Luzon | Jose Sumalde |
| 1966 | Tour of Luzon | Cornelio Padilla |
| 1967 | Tour of Luzon | Cornelio Padilla |
| 1968 | No race listed | |
| 1969 | Tour ng Filipinas | Domingo Quilban |
| 1970 to 1972 | No race listed | |
| 1973 | Tour of Luzon | Jesus Garcia Jr. |
| 1974 | Tour of Luzon–Visayas | Teodorico Rimarim |
| 1975 | Tour of Luzon | Samson Etrata |
| 1976 | Tour of Luzon | Modesto Bonzo |
The Marlboro Tour years, 1977 to 1998
| Year | Race | Champion |
|---|---|---|
| 1977 | Tour ng Pilipinas | Manuel Reynante |
| 1977 | Marlboro Tour ng Pilipinas | Jesus Garcia Jr. |
| 1978 | Perk Speed Tour | Rumin Salamante |
| 1979 | Marlboro Tour | Paquito Rivas |
| 1980 | Marlboro Tour | Manuel Reynante |
| 1981 | Marlboro Tour | Jacinto Sicam |
| 1982 | Marlboro Tour | Jacinto Sicam |
| 1983 | Marlboro Tour | Romeo Bonzo |
| 1984 | Marlboro Tour | Ruben Carino |
| 1985 | Marlboro Tour | Pepito Calip |
| 1986 | Marlboro Tour | Rolando Pagnanawon |
| 1987 | Marlboro Tour | Reynaldo Dequito |
| 1988 | Marlboro Tour | Armando Catalan |
| 1989 | Marlboro Tour | Gerardo Igos |
| 1990 | Marlboro Tour | Manuel Buenaventura |
| 1991 | Marlboro Tour | Bernardo Llentada |
| 1992 | Marlboro Tour | Renato Dolosa |
| 1993 | Marlboro Tour | Carlo Guieb |
| 1994 | Marlboro Tour | Carlo Guieb |
| 1995 | Marlboro Tour | Renato Dolosa |
| 1996 | Marlboro Tour | Victor Espiritu |
| 1997 | Marlboro Tour | Wong Kam-po (Hong Kong) |
| 1998 | Marlboro Centennial Tour | Warren Davadilla |
| 1999 to 2001 | No race listed |
From the 2002 return to the revival, 2002 to 2026
| Year | Race | Champion |
|---|---|---|
| 2002 | FedEx Tour of Calabarzon | Santi Barnachea |
| 2003 | Air21 Tour Pilipinas | Arnel Quirimit |
| 2004 | Race name not confirmed | Rhyan Tanguilig |
| 2005 | Golden Tour 50@05 | Warren Davadilla |
| 2006 | Padyak Pinoy Tour Pilipinas | Santi Barnachea |
| 2007 | Padyak Pinoy | Victor Espiritu |
| 2008 | No race listed | |
| 2009 | Padyak Pinoy Tour of Champions | Joel Calderon |
| 2010 | Le Tour de Filipinas | David McCann (Ireland) |
| 2011 | Le Tour de Filipinas | Rahim Emami (Iran) |
| 2012 | Le Tour de Filipinas | Baler Ravina |
| 2013 | Le Tour de Filipinas | Ghader Mizbani (Iran) |
| 2014 | Le Tour de Filipinas | Mark Galedo |
| 2015 | Le Tour de Filipinas | Thomas Lebas (France) |
| 2016 | Le Tour de Filipinas | Oleg Zemlyakov (Kazakhstan) |
| 2017 | Le Tour de Filipinas | Jai Crawford (Australia) |
| 2018 | Le Tour de Filipinas | El Joshua Cariño |
| 2019 | Le Tour de Filipinas | Jeroen Meijers (Netherlands) |
| 2020 | Canceled | |
| 2021 to 2024 | No race listed | |
| 2025 | Tour of Luzon “Great Revival” | Joo Dae Yeong (Korea) |
| 2026 | Tour of Luzon | Nikita Shulchenko (Russia) |
Ronda Pilipinas, 2011 to 2022
| Year | Champion |
|---|---|
| 2011 | Santi Barnachea |
| 2012 | Mark Galedo |
| 2013 | Irish Valenzuela |
| 2014 | Reimon Lapaza |
| 2015 | Santi Barnachea |
| 2016 | Jan Paul Morales, Ronald Oranza and Jan Paul Morales (three legs) |
| 2017 | Jan Paul Morales |
| 2018 | Ronald Oranza |
| 2019 | Francisco Mancebo (Spain) |
| 2020 | George Oconer |
| 2021 | No race listed |
| 2022 | Ronald Lomotos |
About this record
Old sources do not always agree. Lacuesta’s 1965 account gives the first Tour of Luzon as 5 laps and 1,037 kilometers, where the list we follow gives 1,057 kilometers. We have kept to that list throughout, and we will correct this page as better records come to light.
Eight veterans of these tours are honored at Pedalan with the Tour Legends on December 27, 2026. You can read about each of them in our legends section. If you have programs, clippings or photos from any tour, please get in touch.