Tour of Beijing becomes the first Asian UCI WorldTour event
The UCI released the 2011 WorldTour on Wednesday and with it they officially announced the latest new race in the highest level of road cycling, the Tour of Beijing.
“The quality of the proposal presented to us is superb,” said UCI president Pat McQuaid. “The prospects for the Tour of Beijing within the UCI WorldTour are excellent.”
The UCI License Commission has offered a four-year license to the Chinese cycling authorities, with the inaugural edition of the Tour of Beijing to be held from October 5-9 of next year. It will be the first Asian event in the highest level of cycling, the
WorldTour (formerly ProTour), and the fourth non-European event.
“The concept of organising an event such as the Tour of Beijing would probably never have seen the light of day if this country and city had not had the immense privilege of hosting the Olympic Games,” said Mr. Li, Director of the Beijing Sports Bureau.
“It is the unique legacy of the Games that has been the driving force behind our initiative.”
The ProTour first left Europe in 2008 when Australia’s Tour Down Under was awarded a license and became the first race on the calendar, held every January. In 2010, Canada hosted the first editions of two one-day ProTour races, the GP de Quebec City and
the GP de Montreal, the first time the ProTour crossed the Atlantic.
“After Oceania with the Tour Down Under and America with the Québec and Montréal GPs, the UCI WorldTour is proud of the prospect of further expanding its horizons on the Asian continent, and more specifically in the magnificent country of China, with the
Tour of Beijing,” said McQuaid.
The addition of the Tour of Beijing and the merger of the ProTour and Historical calendars has extended the WorldTour into mid-October, more than six weeks past the former final race, the GP Ouest France-Plouay, which will be held on August 28 in 2011 and
followed by the two Canadian races in early September and the Tour of Beijing at the beginning of October. The WorldTour calendar closes with the former-Historical race, the Giro di Lombardia.
Tags: