Four Chinese riders who might just change the sport
China Glory-Mentech Sports Director Lionel Marie speaks to Global Peloton about the team's biggest prospects
China has long been seen as a potential new frontier for the sport of cycling.
Attempts have been made in the past to make that potential a reality. WorldTour races have been held, the Tour de France have put on criteriums and big teams have signed Chinese riders - but nothing seems to have built the hoped-for momentum yet in the world's second most-populous nation.
Cheng Ji is the most decorated Chinese rider in history. He became the first Chinese rider to race the Tour de France in 2014, and is still the only one to have done so. Ji also race three Giros, a Vuelta and five monuments during his career. He rode for the team now known as DSM-Firmenich-Post NL for ten seasons, forging a career as a reliable domestique. His only UCI career victory came at the 2.2 Tour of South China sea, where he won the first stage in 2008.
Other Chinese riders of note have included three-time national champion Xu Gang, once of Lampre-Merida, and Meiyin Wang who rode for Bahrain-Merida for three seasons. Both can be placed in the category of ‘sponsor signings’. They never truly provided value to those teams on the road, but garnered favour with a sponsor of the team.
Wang was the last of the Chinese WorldTour contingent, leaving Bahrain-Merida in 2019.
Now there is a renewed investment in cycling in China, but the strategy is different. Instead of placing single riders in big teams, they are building from the base. The main thrust of this effort comes in the form of the China Glory-Mentech Continental team.
The team has existed since 2021, backed by the Chinese Cycling Federation - and therefore the Chinese state - the purpose behind the team is to qualify a rider for the Olympic Games on the road and develop young Chinese talent. They have achieved the former and now seek to invest heavily in the latter.
I recently spoke with the team’s head DS Lionel Marie - look out for a more wide-ranging interview with him soon. In our conversation, we spoke about two riders on the team who are making a big impression; two riders who he thinks could become China’s next big success stories.
The first is Xianjing Lyu. Lyu is not only an accomplished road rider, but he is also the best mountain-biker in Asia, having won comfortably the Asian continental championships last year in three MTB disciplines.
In 2023, Lyu also became the first Chinese rider ever to win a race on the UCI Europe Tour when he claimed victory on stage four of Türkiye’s Tour of Sakarya. He also won a stage and the overall at the Tour of Poyang in China last year.
This season, he has continued that winning run at the Grand Prix Syedra Ancient City in early March.
His big goal this season is the Olympic Games, where he will compete on the road and mountain bike - the first rider from China ever to do so.
Here’s what Marie had to say about Lyu:
Maybe Lyu Xianjing is for the moment the only pro-level rider [on China Glory-Mentech]. He's very good. He won also the Asia championship in mountain bike and he's been with us for the last three years. So now he knows himself way much better and how to race.
He's a challenging guy. He needs a high objective to be focused but he's a strong machine.
The second Chinese rider on the rise is Binyan Ma.
Ma is the current Chinese national champion. A fast sprinter, Ma has already mixed it with WorldTour opposition, finishing 8th on stage two of the Gree - Tour of Guangxi last year behind winner Jonathan Milan.
The 25-year-old joined China Glory-Mentech at the beginning of this season and took a win on his first race-day with the squad. Ma won the sprint from a select group at the Grand Prix Antalya Airport City. He then took his second victory with the team a few days later at the Grand Prix Apollon Temple.
Ma is less experienced than Lyu. Marie says that he will be using this season to learn and develop:
For Ma, he needs this year to develop because it's also for him to know how to race, how to save energy. It's completely different.
I went to the World Championships for China in Glasgow, and I saw the influence of the province is very strong in the way of their thinking. Training, racing is completely different than us. That's why Ma needs the six months here.
But I believe second part of the season for us, the last part from September, we will see his progression because he's a very smart, good rider.
These are not the only riders of promise within the China Glory-Mentech squad, but at the moment they are the most prominent. The Chinese team have several other young talents who they hope will develop into accomplished riders. As ever, with projects like these, it is not the first wave of riders who have the best chance to hit the top, but the ones after that.
Not part of the China Glory-Mentech set up, but also worth a mention are two Chinese women who have made the trip to Europe for this season.
Luyao Zeng and Xin Tang signed for the French-registered Winspace squad - previously known as Stade Rochelais Charente Maritime - at the start of the year. Winspace is a bike manufacturer, based in the Chinese city of Xiamen.
These two riders were standouts from last year’s Chinese Women’s WorldTour races. Tang was 8th overall at the Tour of Chongming Island and 5th at the Tour of Guangxi. Zeng placed in the top-10 of all three stages in Chongming Island and is the current Chinese champion.
The pair have already started their seasons, experiencing European racing for the first time. It will take a while for them to find their feet.
Next Saturday, one or both of these riders could become the first Chinese cyclist to race the women’s Paris-Roubaix (Xu Gang and Meiyin Wang both raced the men’s version, failing to finish in three attempts).
I’m hearing that there’s a chance that China could be ready to invest heavily in pro cycling, which could change the face of the sport in a similar way to recent Middle East investments. The success of these riders could tip the balance.
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