Although the UCI insists that the final decision has yet to be made by the Licence Commission, what seems like an almost inevitable addition of the new Tour of Hangzhou to the top calendar took a step forward this week.
The governing body has announced that the UCI President Pat McQuaid travelled to China this week in order to sign an agreement with the authorities in Hangzhou relating to the organization of the first edition of the race.
“This agreement represents the first step in a new phase of our development strategy,” McQuaid stated. “After the Tour of Beijing, China offers us a second fantastic opportunity to promote the image of cycling in the world’s biggest country. I am convinced that those in charge of this initiative are perfectly capable of meeting the other administrative deadlines necessary to obtain a place in the UCI WorldTour.”
On February 10th it was announced that the UCI’s Professional Cycling Council had in principle approved the new tour, which would take place between Wednesday 17th October and the following Sunday.
The UCI said then that the Licence Commission would study the proposal and ultimately decide whether or not to give a green light. The UCI also confirmed to VeloNation at the time that its own Global Cycling Promotions company would run the race. This appeared to make it unlikely that it would be refused.
The governing body has described the latest agreement as being something which means the project now ‘truly gets underway.’
Joining McQuaid in China were Global Cycling Promotions director Alain Rumpf and technical consultant Alan Rushton, who previously worked with McQuaid in running the Nissan Classic and other events.
The duo checked out the quality of roads and different facilities in the region as part of what was a reconnaissance visit.
Rumpf sounds enthusiastic about what he saw. “The lay of the terrain will allow us to design a very interesting course, ideal for a high-level race wishing to become part of the UCI WorldTour,” he said.
The city has over eight million inhabitants and is part of a major tourist area some 200 kilometres south west of Shanghai.
Its Deputy Mayor Chen Xiaoping signed the agreement.
Although China is a very wealthy country that has shrugged off the recession which as affected many other parts of the world, the notion of a second WorldTour race there has let to some questions.
At this point in time Australia and Canada are the only other non-European countries with WorldTour events. Despite that, China looks likely to secure its second WorldTour event, just months after the first Tour of Beijing was run off. It means the country will have more WorldTour days of competition than Belgium.
In addition, the addition of another race further extends the calendar for UCI ProTeams and means that many of the sport’s riders will be racing almost until November.
The UCI has said that the thriving Chinese economy offers big sponsorship possibilities to the sport and its teams.