THE last lag of Tour of China International Road Cycling Race, which began in Tianjin 17 days earlier, wound up in Zhuhai yesterday. The 220 cyclists of 22 international and professional teams included eight from Europe, four from Asia, two from the Americas, two from Oceania, one from Chinese Taipei, one from Hong Kong, and four from the Chinese Mainland.
Locally, they started at the Zhuhai Sports Centre at 10am, and raced through Yinhua, North Yingbin and Meihua roads; Lovers Avenue across from the new Zhuhai Museum and Grand Theatre; past the Fisher Maiden statue and Haibin Beach; down Haizhou Road, Jiuzhou and Zhuhai avenues, and Jinwan Interchange; by Air Show Exhibition Halls; over Doumen Jianfeng Bridge; and along Zhufeng Avenue before ending at Doumen Riviera residential area. The route ran through Xiangzhou, Jinwan and Doumen districts.
This year’s Tour of China was held October 2-18. The event crossed 5,500km through 12 provinces and municipalities such as Tianjin, Hubei, Sichuan, Chongqing, Hunan and Guangdong.
The event was hosted by The Cycling & Fencing Administrative Centre under the General Administration of Sports of China and the China Bicycle Association, and organised by the Zhuhai Government and China Olympic Sports Industry co ltd with collaboration from the Culture, Sports & Tourism Bureau, and Xiangzhou, Jinwan and Doumen district governments.
Tour of China is the country’s only cross-regional international individual sports event and one of China’s four major brand events, ranking fourth in the world following Tour de France, Tour of Spain, and Tour of Italy.
