Opinion | Why does the Tour de France have so few Asian riders, and no representation from Hong Kong?
- A focus on cycling has not translated into success in the world’s most famous road race despite success in other forms of the sport, like in the velodrome
- Even those cyclists with a chance to make it at World Tour level have chosen not to take the opportunity
It’s sad to see there is just one Asian rider at this year’s Tour de France, Kazakh racer Alexey Lutsenko of the Astana team. This is despite the sport seemingly pushing so hard to become truly global, and to accommodate rising talent from minority cycling nations.
There is just one Chinese rider registered to a World Tour cycling team, Wang Meiyin of the Bahrain Merida squad, and there has only ever been one Chinese rider in the Tour de France, Ji Cheng, who rode in 2013 and 2014, finishing only the latter, and in last place.
What of Hong Kong? There has never been a Hong Kong rider at the Tour unless you count retired British pro David Millar, who moved to Hong Kong aged 13 and moved back to the UK after school.
Over the years, Hong Kong has produced several top quality bike racers, riders who were more than capable of at least taking a shot at racing at World Tour level. Some may assume it to be lack of opportunity, after all Hong Kong is on the opposite side of the world to Europe, the heartland of professional bike racing. There are also the cultural barriers. Bike racing isn’t mainstream enough here to be considered a viable career path to many, nor is Hong Kong a cycling paradise.
There have been several Hong Kong riders who have overcome these barriers and had the doors opened for them to compete at the highest level, and they chose not to.