Tour of Beijing: Good for Cycling or Bad for Cyclists

The inaugural Tour of Beijing is nearing its end and there has been mixed reviews from the cycling community. So is the Tour of Beijing good for cycling or bad for cyclists?

To be honest I think it is a bit of both; cycling needs to broaden its horizons, but not at the expense of the riders’ health. Cycling in Asia, when you compare it to Europe and even America, is almost non-existent. With some big sponsors dropping out of the sport (not mentioning any names HTC) and places like China are full of big business companies, who would be very willing to invest.

With sports like football and rugby, you can rely on ticket sales to keep a team’s finances going. Cycling is a free sport to watch and ultimately it needs investors to keep it floating, but the UCI need to take care with the cyclists’ health. Surely a week in the smog cannot be good for them; they have been riding, during times the news channels advise you to avoid any outdoor sports. I would like to see cycling spread the globe, but places where the air is much clearer should have been chosen.

Perhaps a Tour of China would have been better, so the riders could have really got out of the city and in to some cleaner air. I would love to see a South American or African races grace the UCI calendar. We certainly aren’t short of South American riders, so why can’t we give them the chance to ride in front of their home crowds.

I think the Tour of Beijing is good for cycling, but perhaps more needs to be done to make sure the UCI Tour goes to places that don’t put the cyclists at risk.