Quanzhou tour a world-class test

Kazakhstan's Astana City Continental Team won the team title and Stalnov Nikita was crowned the individual winner after three days of competition over the weekend.

"I like Quanzhou and China very much," said Nikita.

"My victory came only after the help from my teammates. The route was well-chosen, difficult and full of good challenges.

"I want to thank the organizers for their excellent work. I'm expecting to come back next year."

Nikita, who finished third overall in tours of Turkey, Ukraine and Azerbaijan, clocked a three-day time of 7 hours, 46 minutes and 47 seconds. His Astana team won in 23 hours, 34 minutes.

The three-day Tour of Quanzhou Bay covers a distance of 326.5 km, with the green ecology stage (125 km), the bay trip stage (107 km) and the city stage (94.5), passing through eight counties.

Besides a number of professional cyclists from 15 of the world's top teams representing Germany, Colombia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Greece, Belarus, Philippines, Singapore, Spain, Mongolia and China, 10,000 amateurs participated in a fun ride led by Gong Jinjie, who won China's first Olympic cycling title in team sprint at the Rio Games.

"Experiencing the beauty of Quanzhou is fun, and I look forward to helping develop and promote sport cycling in China," Gong said.

More than 20 road cycling tours are registered with the China Cycling Association. Of all the races in China, 10 percent are at the international level, 15 percent at the national level, 35 percent at the provincial level and 40 percent at the municipal level.

More than 3,000 races were staged in China last year, and the nation now has more than 2,200 cycling clubs registered.

"The successful hosting of the 2016 Tour of Quanzhou Bay has convinced us to make it a brand-name event for the city in the next five to 10 years," said Chen Xiangrong, deputy secretary-general of Quanzhou municipal government.

yangxinwei@chinadaily.com.cn