The
29-year-old Li Fuyu is competing here at his fifth Tour of Qinghai
Lake. This time, the dazzling Discovery Channel team jersey not
only gave him a new look but also did a boost in standings.
In the first two stages at this year's Tour of Qinghai Lake
starting on July 14th, Li mounted the platform twice with the blue
jersey and managed a 15th placing in the total of 139 competitors.
"I believe I have made improvements in all aspects," said Li,
who became the first Chinese rider to sign with a UCI
(International Cycling Union) professional team at the beginning
of this year.
"Now, I can adjust myself to the competition more quickly and
be much tougher during the race," said the Shandong native.
Ekimov Viatcheslav, the team manager of Discovery Channel at
the race, was even more confident about Li's progress. The
41-year-old Olympic gold medalist believed that the moment Li
joined the team, he had made a huge progress.
"It meant that he was able to compete on a much higher level,"
said the 15-time Tour de France participant, "and he was surely
stronger while competing with such a strong team."
Li had taken part in dozens of races with Discovery Channel
team and managed to take seven Pro Tour points in the team time
trial in Eindhoven, the Netherlands last month, which practically
means that he qualifies for the Olympic road race in Beijing next
year.
"The team is very strong and we fight as a group," Li
repeatedly insisted during the race. But it's still unknown if
there is any teammate to assist him at the Olympic Games.
Ma Haijun was another Chinese rider taking advantage of
studying abroad.
Ma showed his potential by finishing third in a stage of last
year's Tour of Qinghai Lake. Afterwards, the 22-year-old Qinghai
native obtained the opportunity to train in the UCI World Cycling
Center this year.
"The training enabled me to improve a lot," said Ma, who has
been training in Switzerland for four months.
"I rarely participated in any event while training at home," Ma
said, "But since I went to Switzerland, I competed once or twice
every week."
Ma thought the rich opportunities of competition gave him more
space to improve.
"I'm more aware of the ways of competing and understand how to
attack in different conditions," said Ma.
Earlier this month, Ma proved his maturity by wining the 40km
individual time trial at the B World Championships in South
Africa.
Ma is also speeding up at the Tour of Qinghai Lake. He was
ranked 22nd after the first two stages and was the second best
Asian rider here just after Li.
Besides, three young riders represent the UCI Euro pro team
Skil-Shimano of the Netherlands at the race, among whom both Jin
Long and Ji Cheng were ranked much higher than the Chinese
national team's riders except Ma Haijun.
According to Chinese team manager Li Wei, cycling is a sport
demanding high professionism. China could only provide limited
amount of races for their own riders at home. Therefore, joining
foreign teams or training abroad are positive for the Chinese
riders to improve.
Yao Li, an official from the Chinese cycling association said,
most of the excellent road cyclists in the world came from pro
teams, and China is doing its best abiding by the "going out"
strategy.
Since 2005, China has sent nearly 30 riders including 20 women
cyclists to the European pro teams. They competed more than 30
races in less than a year, almost ten times more than they did in
China.
Those lucky riders not only gained a lot of experience but also
learnt the advanced skills and tactics.
Yao stressed that there would be more Chinese riders being sent
to foreign pro teams in the future.