Foreign soldiers increase the heat for the cross-Vietnam bicycle race
The riders will start from Hanoi on April 2, race through the central roads, up the Central Highlands and down the South Central Coast. The team then continued their journey to the Langbiang Plateau, Da Lat and then lowered the mountain to the Southeast. Unlike previous races, this year the team will compete in more stages in the Mekong Delta before finishing in Ho Chi Minh City at noon on April 30.
98 cyclists from 14 domestic racing teams including Ho Chi Minh City, An Giang, Dong Thap, Dong Nai, Hanoi, Thanh Hoa, Army, Binh Duong... will compete in 25 races with a total length of 2,964km to find the most prestigious awards. In particular, the incumbent Red Shirt and Yellow Shirt Igor Frolov (HCMC) are considered the strongest candidates. In addition, this year's Russian driver also introduced to the HCM City team a compatriot Vladislav Duiunov with a personal knack for timekeeping.
After not being able to attend the 2022 tournament, Javier Sarda Perez - the Spanish driver who won the 2019 Yellow Vest - returned to the race track in the Binh Duong shirt. Besides, the sprint king Roman Maikin (An Giang) or Loic Desriac (Dong Thap) are also highly appreciated.
"Vietnamese teams are recruiting many quality foreign soldiers. In addition to familiar faces, some foreign soldiers are unknown. So it can be said that this year's race will be a war of foreign soldiers," he said. Tran Dinh Khoi, head of the award's executive board, commented.
This year's race has a total prize fund of nearly two billion dong, of which the Yellow Shirt in the end received 200 million dong, and the Blue Shirt and Red Shirt were ultimately worth 50 million dong each. Team champion will receive 100 million VND. The best Vietnamese cyclist receives VND 50 million. In addition, for each leg, the first runner will get 20 million dong, the next places are five million dong, three million dong and one million dong.
In parallel with the race, the sponsor will award scholarships to students in the localities where the race team passed with a total value of 2.5 billion VND.
