HONG Kong's top cycling club, Ngai Hing, have again recruited New Zealand riders to boost their challenge in the gruelling nine-stage Tour de Taiwan series starting next week. Big-spending Ngai Hing, an electrical appliances supplier, finished third out of 29 teams in the 1,203-kilometre series last year under the leadership of New Zealand's Commonwealth champion Graeme Miller. Veteran Miller, at 32 one of the oldest riders in the field last year, won the 170-kilometre third leg from Panchaio to Ta Chia and finished third overall in the individual category. Ngai Hing also had in last year's team Brendan Hart, Rick Reid and Chris Barnsley. The only Hong Kong rider was Hui Chak-bor. New Zealand's ''mountain king'' Hart won two legs - the 171-kilometre fifth stage from Chaiyi to Ping Tung and the 135-kilometre last leg from Yilan to Taipei. However, Miller and Reid were dropped this time and joining Hart and Barnsley in the Ngai Hing line-up are current New Zealand national squad members - Landerey Douglas, Mark Rendall and Glenn Rewi. Team manager Vincent Tse On-po expects even better results this year with an investment of more than $700,000, which includes expenses for a masseur from New Zealand. ''The Tour de Taiwan is one of the biggest races at this time of the year and attracts top European and Soviet teams, so we invited the best New Zealand riders to carry our banner again,'' said Tse. ''We were very successful with the New Zealanders last year and although there's a couple of new riders to the squad, we're fully confident they will keep our colours flying high in Taiwan. ''We would have like to have kept Reid in the team but he failed to make the national team this year. There's doubt about his fitness as he has had a long lay-off due to the ankle injury he sustained during last year's tour.'' The New Zealanders arrive on Saturday and will take the 100-kilometre Wells Cup team time trial at Bride's Pool in Tai Po as a warm-up race before leaving for Taiwan tomorrow week. Ngai Hing's powerful Kiwi outfit showed their class with a runaway victory in the Wells Cup last year when they lapped all but runners-up South China A, who were more than 17 minutes slower. The Hong Kong Cycling Association have also named a five-strong squad - Hui Chak-bor, Man Wai-chung, Kwok Yiu-chung, Tse Wing-man and Wong Yuk-shing - for the Taiwan event. Tse and Wong, both 19, will be making their international debut. They were called up because Chan Lung, Chong Dat-wai and Wong Kam-po are all unavailable due to schooling or work commitments. ''Tse Wing-man and Wong Yuk-shing are two of the most promising young riders in our national training squad and they should benefit from the experience of the tour,'' said Walter Yue Ka-lok, senior sports executive of the HKCA.
