VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The Siak district administration in Riau Province, will organize an international cycling and sports tourism event called Tour de Siak on September 17-21, 2018, to promote tourism internationally.

Tour de Siak will comprise four stages this year, as compared to three stages last year, Fauzi Asni, head of the Siak district tourism office, stated here, Thursday. The additional stage is Siak-Sungai Apit, stretching 115.16 kilometers (km).

The four stages are Siak-Dayun, covering 154.18 km; Siak -Sungai Apit, 115.18 km; Siak-Dayun-Buatan-Siak, 161.48 km; and the final stage is Siak City, 92.06 km. Since 2013, Siak has organized this annual event to promote tourism in the district. So far, 13 teams, comprising eight foreign teams and five domestic teams, have confirmed their participation in the cycling race, offering a total prize worth Rp750 million.

Asni expressed hope that Tour de Siak would help to increase the number of domestic and foreign tourists as well as boost the local economy.

Meanwhile, some 125 domestic and foreign cyclists have confirmed their participation in the 2018 Tour de Central Celebes (TdCC) to be held on Oct 14-18 this year. The number of participants increased from some 60 cyclists in the first TdCC organized in the previous year, Dr Hasan, race director of the Second TdCC, stated in Palu, Central Sulawesi, recently.

"The final number of participants is 20 foreign teams from 15 countries and five national teams. Each team will comprise five cyclists and three crew members," he remarked.

More cyclists are interested in the TdCC, as it has been included in the Union Cyclist Internasionale and will offer more prizes worth a total of Rp1.2 billion, or more than double than Rp580 million last year.

The foreign teams are from Australia, Mongolia, Malaysia, Canada, the Philippines, Iran, Belgium, Thailand, Poland, Uzbekistan, Serbia, China, Columbia, France, and the United States. The national teams are PGN, ACC, KFC, BRCC/UBK, and Indonesia Pratama.

The cycling race will cover a total distance of 760 kilometers, stretching from Luwuk City, Banggai District, to Palu Municipality. (ant)