Wong ready to ride into professional ranks

Wong Kam-po has decided to turn professional after the Olympic Games. The Asian Games road race champion will use the Olympics as a springboard to a career in professional racing and talks with world-class teams will be held in Sydney.

Turning professional has long been Wong's dream but he had kept his ambition on hold in order to represent Hong Kong at major races.

'It's time for a change. I want to expose myself to top races in other parts of the world. I have been to two Asian Games and I'll be competing in my second Olympics. I want to break into professional racing after that,' explained Wong.

The Hong Kong cycling sensation is looking beyond next month's Olympics because the 40-kilometre point race is not his strongest event. He failed to qualify for the road race in Sydney.

The 27-year-old star, however, says months of training in the velodrome for the points race has not been a waste of time as he believes that it will transform him into a better all-round rider when he returns to the road after the Olympics.

National coach Shen Jinkang said he would talk to some teams - whom he didn't identify - at the Olympics and hoped to secure a contract for Wong with one of them in Sydney. Shen said it would not be a big problem because some professional teams had approached Wong before when he competed in multi-stage tour events, such as January's Tour of Langkawi in Malaysia.

'I'll be able to attract more attention from them [pro teams] if I perform well in Sydney. But it doesn't matter if I don't do well because there are so many types of pro teams out there. I'm confident I can join one of them,' said Wong, who heads to Nanjing for his final Olympic buildup today.