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　　 　　The ‘Bicycle Kingdom’ seeks to be among medal nations in cycling events at the 2008 Olympic Games
　　
　　Although China has the largest number of people riding bicycles in the world, most Chinese ride to commute out of necessity and not really for sports, said Chen Jianmin, Head Coach of Hunan Cycling Club.
　　In fact there are only 1,000 registered sports cyclists in China, a country with a population of 1.3 billion. When compared to France, which has 200,000 sports cyclists, China lags far behind.
　　Many sporting experts who have visited China believe the low number of competitive cyclists is due to a lack of races. In France, there are more than 10,000 registered cycling races, while in China the number is less than 1 percent of this.
　　Chen believes if China really wants to own the title of “Bicycle Kingdom,” more cycling races need to be organized and local riders need to attend more international races, such as Tour de France.
　　Foreign missionaries first brought bicycles into China at the end of the 19th century, but until 1952 when cycling became one of the events of the First Games of the People’s Liberation Army, there had been no formal cycling races in China.
　　In recent years, cycling races have boomed in the country, especially the Tour of Qinghai Lake, which has attracted many professional cycling teams and has become one of the most important cycling races in Asia.
　　Compared with Tour de France, with a history of more than 100 years, Tour of Qinghai Lake, only five years old, is still in its infancy. Despite its rapid progress in recent years, Tour of Qinghai Lake cannot be mentioned in the same breath as Tour de France in terms of scale, race grade, level of participants, influence and media publicity.
　　Nevertheless, the young Tour of Qinghai Lake is paving the way for professional cyclists in China and the cycling sport as a whole. Together with the Tour of Beijing International Cycling Race, Tour of China International Cycling Race and Tour of South China Sea Cycling Competition, Tour of Qinghai Lake is stretching the solid foundation of this sports event in China. Moreover, some European professional cycling teams have indicated they are keen to recruit Chinese cyclists.
　　
　　But China can take some heart in the two-wheel stakes. The women’s 500m time trial cycle is one area where China shines. Jiang Cuihua won the bronze medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, where her event first appeared in competition, and Jiang Yonghua broke the world record in the final of the 2002 World Cup and won the silver medal at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.
　　The Executive Board of the International Cycling Union made an important decision in the Hague on June 10, 2005, which will greatly affect China. With the introduction of BMX into the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the men’s 1km time trial and the women’s 500m time trial will be removed from the Olympic Games from 2008--bad news for China, which had a chance of winning medals in these events.
　　Jiang Guofeng, Secretary General of China Bicycle Association, said that although this decision is unfavorable to the Chinese team, the gold medal plan of Chinese cycling will not change. Women’s individual pursuit, points racing, road racing and mountain bike are the areas where China hopes to be among the medals, said Jiang.
　　With the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games as a pivot, Chinese cycling is expected to enter the world front ranks in the near future--if it can make greater professional progress, attract more participants and gain more national support.

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