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First Chinese doing a Grand Tour - will there be more ?

snackattack

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`resident of the greatest sporting nation on this planet´

Ji Cheng (China)

Yukihiro Doi
John Degenkolb
Simon Geschke
Johannes Fröhlinger
Alexandre Geniez
Thierry Hupond
Tom Dumoulin
Koen de Kort

(ARGOS@Vuelta)
 
Jun 1, 2011
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This Team in Utah:

Champion System Pro Cycling Team

Craig Lewis (USA)
Chris Butler (USA)
William Clarke (AUS)
Pengda Jiao (CHN)
Biao Liu (CHN)
Muhamad Adiq Husainie Othman (MAS)
Cameron Wurf (AUS)
Gang Xu (CHN)

MAS ?
 
BillytheKid said:
This Team in Utah:

Champion System Pro Cycling Team

Craig Lewis (USA)
Chris Butler (USA)
William Clarke (AUS)
Pengda Jiao (CHN)
Biao Liu (CHN)
Muhamad Adiq Husainie Othman (MAS)
Cameron Wurf (AUS)
Gang Xu (CHN)

MAS ?

Tour de utath the 4th GT right after the tour, ToC, Tour down under and the tour of beinjin?
 
Depends. How big is cycling in China? As a means of transport, very, but decreasing in rich cities. Cycling might be considered to be a poor mans thing and combine that with the affinity of Olympic games in China, cycling may not become that popular.
 
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Arnout said:
Depends. How big is cycling in China? As a means of transport, very, but decreasing in rich cities. Cycling might be considered to be a poor mans thing and combine that with the affinity of Olympic games in China, cycling may not become that popular.

Plenty of medals to be earned in track cycling.
 
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Arnout said:
I can imagine them going big in track cycling yes. Road cycling, not so much.

Road cycling is massively popular in Hong Kong and Shenzhen. Lots of small groups made up of expats and locals riding at the weekends.
 
El Pistolero said:
Track cycling is just a stepping stone. Even in China a Chinese winning the Tour would be considered a great feat.

Is it? I'm not so sure. Especially for a country like China where Olympic medals seem to be valued a lot, track cycling is way more attractive. It's much easier to control and predict and there are more medals at stake. A Tour contender might be a side effect, but I can't see them focusing on it for the time being.
 
LugHugger said:
Road cycling is massively popular in Hong Kong and Shenzhen. Lots of small groups made up of expats and locals riding at the weekends.

While that is respectable, it isn't going to bring you TdF winners. For that, youth needs to start cycling, and that's only possible with proper infrastructure (teams, races and all that).
 
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Arnout said:
While that is respectable, it isn't going to bring you TdF winners. For that, youth needs to start cycling, and that's only possible with proper infrastructure (teams, races and all that).

There are thousands of young Chinese millionaires in South China. They consume the best of Western culture. Be it wine, cars, fashion or bikes, the money is there and they want their country to be the best at everything . Do not underestimate their drive to succeed. They will spend the money as the WT race demonstrates.
 
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Arnout said:
We'll see. Mind you, I'm not opposing it and I'm not questioning Chinese tenacity and willpower in general, I'm just skeptical.

Why are you skeptical? look at the medal count, they dominate the olympics, for whatever reason they produce really talented athletes.

if they can ever produce a cyclist who can ride as good as this guy can swim ...

sunYang.jpg
 
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Need to tap into some of that Chinese corporate sponsorship to get things rolling. So many megamillionaires there, got to have a handful willing to take a risk in this.
 
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Chinese interest for road cycling is increasing daily; a simple example are the bikes stores opening here and there around the Country and Im talking of big nice stores.

Amateur cycling in China is growing a lot also and you often hear of races with silly huge money prize.
Especially around Shenzhen/HK and Shanghai area where there's some sort of cycling culture as a sport.

We might see sooner or later some decent guys but I think the main problem is the approach the whole system has; those kind of "sport schools" are an old system which doesnt go everywhere.
Especially cause they dont care about developing a good rider to send to EU for example, but just try to get victories into their own Country (the more victories/results you get, the more your "school" get foundings from government).
 
DominicDecoco said:
Hopefully.

AS long as it doesn't involve more WT races in China in the process...

This.

Arnout said:
Depends. How big is cycling in China? As a means of transport, very, but decreasing in rich cities. Cycling might be considered to be a poor mans thing and combine that with the affinity of Olympic games in China, cycling may not become that popular.

Agree with your observations. Cycling may be seen as a symbol of the past.
Also, the young Chinese will chase the money and becoming a Pro Cyclist will probably depend on the money it offers. The Chinese tend to follow the Americans more than Europe, and glamour, big money sports like Golf, Tennis & Basketball are the fastest growing sports there. Can't imagine too many Chinese kids turning in to Pro Cycling in the near future.
Furthermore, the Chinese women are more dominant internationally than there male counterparts and usually, It's them who bring success first.
The lack of serious money in Womens' pro Cycling might be a hindering factor.

Arnout said:
I can imagine them going big in track cycling yes. Road cycling, not so much.

Definitely, They'll chase the medals. They have concentrated on high medal sports like Swimming, Fencing, Weightlifting with great success, and they'll definitely target Track Cycling, Esp the women
When or Whether they'll turn in to Road cycling will depend on how much importance and national pride they'll attach to it.
Perhaps after winning the Medal tally at the Olympics and after Chinese win multiple majors in Tennis and Golf, and a lack of success in the Tour is a blot in their nation's pride.
 
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the asian said:
This.



Agree with your observations. Cycling may be seen as a symbol of the past.
Also, the young Chinese will chase the money and becoming a Pro Cyclist will probably depend on the money it offers. The Chinese tend to follow the Americans more than Europe, and glamour, big money sports like Golf, Tennis & Basketball are the fastest growing sports there. Can't imagine too many Chinese kids turning in to Pro Cycling in the near future.
Furthermore, the Chinese women are more dominant internationally than there male counterparts and usually, It's them who bring success first.
The lack of serious money in Womens' pro Cycling might be a hindering factor.



Definitely, They'll chase the medals. They have concentrated on high medal sports like Swimming, Fencing, Weightlifting with great success, and they'll definitely target Track Cycling, Esp the women
When or Whether they'll turn in to Road cycling will depend on how much importance and national pride they'll attach to it.
Perhaps after winning the Medal tally at the Olympics and after Chinese win multiple majors in Tennis and Golf, and a lack of success in the Tour is a blot in their nation's pride.

They are pouring hundreds of millions into football at the moment but so far with no success,
Certainly they are way behind Korea and Japan.Not sure why.
 
simo1733 said:
They are pouring hundreds of millions into football at the moment but so far with no success,
Certainly they are way behind Korea and Japan.Not sure why.

Yr. But Football is a much harder sport to be successful, because all the nations are crazy about it. The Japanese had plenty of heartaches in the 90s before finally becoming a force in Asia in the 00s. Interestingly the Chinese women team a very good in the 90s becoming runners up at both the Wc and Olympics. They have gone backwards now.
 

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