Mod-Rewrite or PHP router?

I am debating routing my requests with one of the two options:

Option 1: simple capture route with Mod-Rewrite and funnel written $_GET route to index.php for loading...

#default routing
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule    ^blog/([0-9]+)?$    index.php?rt=blog&params=$1    [L,QSA]
// ..more custom routes, and then a default route
RewriteRule    ^([A-Za-z]+)/([A-Za-z]+)/(.*)?$    index.php?rt=$1/$2&params=$3    [L,QSA]

Option 2: simply route requests to Front Controller, and create a PHP routing class to handle the routing...

#default routing
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?rt=$1 [L,QSA]

/* --- on front controller, process $_GET['rt'] --- */

at the end of the day, which will run faster, be easier to secure, and be easier to maintain?

any other ideas?

NOTE: I am not running a known framework. I am building my own MVC pattern to learn it.