Chinese World Tour racing is back - a big moment for the future of cycling?
+ The season is not over! Cameroon, China, Brazil, Japan... a massive global race round up
While the season in Europe is winding down, there are still a few more weeks of action in other parts of the world - and if you miss them, you’re missing out.
The Tours of Guangxi and Chonming Island return
The Tours of Guangxi and Chonming Island are back for the first time since Enric Mas and Lorena Wiebes won back in 2019. Since then, the COVID pandemic has prevented the races from happening, as well as many other large events in China.
For the first time, there will also be a women’s Tour of Guangxi, a one-day World Tour race held on the final day of the men’s race. Seven Women’s World Tour teams will be in China alongside ten Continental squads and the Chinese national team.
With so few World Tour races taking place in Asia, the return of racing in China is an important step for the continued globalisation of the sport, even if the races are seen as unimportant, or even a joke, to many in the cycling world. This is probably due to its timing in the season and the level of genuine interest in the sport in the country, or maybe the subconscious feeling that cycling belongs to the Europeans. It doesn’t.
The level of cycling is growing in China. This year, a Chinese male rider won a UCI race in Europe for the first time in history. That was Xianjing Lyu of China Glory, who won the final stage of the Tour of Sakarya in Turkey. He also finished in second place on GC, just two seconds behind World Tour rider Martin Laas. Haoyu Su is a young rider at China Glory who is progressing steadily.
There are also more races than ever before on the UCI and national level, men and women. International racing returned to the country in the spring. Most of the long-standing Chinese stage races which disappeared since the pandemic have returned, including the 2.PRO Tour of Hainan which took place last week.
In China Glory, they also have a Continental team which is becoming competitive. Young, talented Chinese riders are being mentored by experienced riders and the results are steadily coming.
The Chinese national squads have not been announced yet, but expect the men’s team to feature a few China Glory riders. It is being coached by the Manager at China Glory, Lionel Marie. It will be interesting to see how Lyu fares at his highest level race yet.
The women’s race feature Yuhang Cui, a promising young rider who races for China Liv Pro Cycling. She won the silver medal at the under-23 Asian TT champs and raced in Glasgow at the Worlds. This will be a huge experience-builder for her.
A lot is still unknown about China’s intentions in the sport. They have not invested yet on the level of the UAE or Bahrain - nations with similar levels of interest and history in cycling. Will that investment come? With more success: maybe. If that happens, I think their impact on the sport could be significant.
Do you think China will become a major player in cycling in the next 10-15 years? Let me know what you think.
Global Race Round Up
This is a key point in the season for the globalisation of cycling. The European races are nearly over, now Asia, Africa and South America have chances to shine. There are some cracking races happening over the next few weeks. Some we can watch, some we can’t, but I urge you not to switch off. Here are some of the races that took place over the last week.
Tour of Hainan
Preceding the big World Tour races was the Tour of Hainan, won by 47-year-old (!) Oscar Sevilla. Quite astonishing that he was able to beat the likes of Sebastian Berwick, James Piccoli and Ben Hermans.
The racing was dominated by the European teams plus Sevilla’s Team Medellin. The outlier here was a good ride by Canadian Piccoli for China Glory who won stage three and finished third overall.
There were some solid performances from the Asian riders. Malaysian sprint legend Mohd Harrif Saleh scord a top-five on the opener alongside Zhihui Jiang (CHI). The Asian riders found life difficult on the tougher stages though, 23-year-old Chinese rider Boan Li was the best Asian rider on GC in 18th, with compatriot Geng Ten two places further down.
Asian Games
The Asian Games are recognised as the second largest multi-sport event after the Olympics. Those of us living outside of Asia may not be too familiar with the event, but winning these races is a huge deal for Asian cyclists.
There was a shock win in the women’s road race by Qianyu Yang of Hong Kong. The favourites broke a golden rule: don’t let a trackie get to the sprint. The same thing happened in the women’s African Continentals in February when Ese Lovina Ukpeseraye (NIG) won. Yang was fresh from winning the silver medal in the Madison a few days earlier. Ahreum Na (KOR) and Jutatip Manheepan (THA) were second and third respectively.
The rest of the races went to form. Alexey Lutsenko (KAZ) won his third Asian Games TT in a row. His compatriot Yevgeniy Federov won the road race. Olga Zabelinskaya (UZB) won the women’s TT (further improving her Uzbek continental team’s chances of riding the Tour de Frances Femmes avec Zwift in 2024).
GP Chantal Biya
Algerian sprint king Yacine Hamza continued his incredible season by winning the GP Chantal Biya in Cameroon, claiming two stages along the way. Hamza took his UCI win total for the year to 17, level with Tadej Pogacar and only bettered by Miguel Angel Lopez.
Hamza told Global Peloton that despite his success this year, he has had no contact from teams. What’s a guy got to do?
There were also stage wins for Moroccan sprinter Achraf ed Doghmy (his seventh UCI win of the year) and Rwanda’s Samuel Niyonkuru (his first ever UCI win).
Tour de Kyushu
The Tour de Kyushu, brand new 2.1 race in Japan, was won by Andrey Zeits. He led home an Astana Qazaqstan 1-2 ahead of Antonio Nibali.
Young Japanese sprinter Naoki Kojima pulled off a surprise win on stage one. Kojima is a very promising track rider, having finished 7th in the points race at the Worlds in Glasgow and won events at the Asian Games and Asian Continental Championships. One to watch.
Three 1.2s in Brazil
The only UCI road racing in Brazil in 2023 took place last week with three one-day races for both men and women.
For the women, there were wins for three Colombians: Paula Andrea Carrasco, Vanesa Martinez and Elizabeth Castano. Ana Vitoria Magalhaes was unsurprisingly the best Brazilian performer. The Bizkaia-Durango rider finished on the podium of each race. There were also more points for the Tashkent Conti team.
The men’s races were won by Leangel Linarez (VEN), Roderyck Asconeguy (URU) and Juan Felipe Rodriguez (COL). The top Brazilian rider over the three races was 21-year-old Otavio Gonzeli who was in the top-10 three times.
In other race news, the Tour of Türkiye kicked off on Sunday. I interviewed Max Stedman for Write, Bike, Repeat ahead of the race. Look out for more from Max on Global Peloton later this week on what it’s like to race in Turkey.
Some sad news as La Tropicale Amissa Bongo has been cancelled for 2024. It’s one of the longest-standing African races, but with the coup in Gabon a few weeks ago, it’s unsurprising to see it not taking place in 2024.
Over the next few weeks, we still have racing to come in Japan, Hong Kong, Burkina Faso, Guatemala and more.
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The amount of greenwashing in cycling is incredible- China Glory? Bahrain Victorious? UAE..IPT..on and on..covering nasty regimes in “nice cycling” mantle..so much plain BS, and the riders high paid moral sell outs