The 4th Tour de Qinghai Lake International Cycling Race concluded successfully and the governor of Qinghai Province Song Xiuyan proposed to upgrade the race further to UCI (Union Cyclist Internationale) professional status.

Song made the suggestion on July 23 when she met Hein Verbruggen, president of the Union of Cyclist Internationale. Verbruggen arrived last Saturday at Xining, capital city of Qinghai Province, to inspect the last stage of the nine-day Tour on July 24 at the invitation of the organizing committee of the Tour de Qinghai Lake.

Song said the Tour de Qinghai Lake has served Qinghai Province's openness and development of economy and society. On the other hand, the successful celebration of the cycling race has enhanced the public confidence in the faster development of the region.

According to Song, through the four cycling races held in the province, Qinghai now has basic experience and conditions to hold a professional sport event. She said, China is a kingdom of bicycle, Qinghai Province locates in the third pole (Qinghai-Tibet Plateau), so holding an UCI professional race here accords with the spirit of Olympic Games: faster, higher and stronger.

Verbruggen said Qinghai is an underdeveloped province in economy, but its cycling sport is well-developed with the highest-category race in Asia. When he delivered speech in Europe, he usually took Tour de Qinghai Lake as an example for its progress and strategy that Qinghai people take the race as a means to help the social development.

Verbruggen also expressed that the UCI will offer more help to develop the cycling race in Qinghai and discuss the possibility to upgrade the Tour de Qinghai Lake to professional race with relative officials.

Source: Xinhua