2011 Tour of Qinghai Lake (HC), China
July 1 - July 10
Pre-race: Report on meeting to improve race quality |
Final General Classification after Stage Nine:
- Gregor Gazvoda (Perutnina Ptuj) 28hr 40min 28sec
- Dimitriy Gruzdev (Kazakhstan) @ 4sec
- Mateusz Taciak (CCC Polsat) @ 1mn 2sec
- Matej Mugerli (Perutnina Ptuj) @ 1mn 11sec
- Tomislav Danculovic (Laborika Favorit) @ 1min 27sec
- Hossein Askari (Tabriz Petrochemical) @ 1min 29sec
- Omar Lombardi (Colnago-CSF) @ 1min 32sec
- Javier Ramirez Abeja (Andalucia) @ 1min 33sec
- Amir Zargari (Azad University) @ 1min 37sec
- Fabricio Ferrari (Caja Rural) @ 1min 50sec
- Marek Rutkiewicz (CCC Polsat) @ 1min 52sec
- Adrian Palomares (Andalucia) @ 1min 54sec
- Hossein Alizadeh (Tabriz Petrochemical) @ 1min 56sec
- Emanuel Kiserlovski (Laborika Favorit) s.t.
- Jacek Morajko (CCC Polsat) s.t.
The 10th Edition of Tour of Qinghai Lake Strives for the Best
The Euro experts are on the left
2011 will be the Tour of Qinghai Lake's, UCI 2.HC, 10th edition and the organizers are doing their best to achieve the best ever race on the continent. Recently, a group of people who has been involved with UCI road races around the world for more than a decade, like Mr. Martinus Bruin, UCI International Commissaire from the Netherlands, Mr. Michael Ross, UCI International Commissaire from Ireland, Mr. William Clinch, National Development Coordinator from Australia, Mr. Qiu Jijin, UCI International Commissaire from China, Mr. Jean Quenet, a journalist from France and Mr. Yanyong Charoenpong, a journalist from Thailand have been invited to attend a forum in Xining, China, to express their views and suggestions regarding 'How to improve Tour of Qinghai Race?'.
The meeting chaired by Mr. Guo Yujing, Duputy Director of Qinghai Sports Bureau and Mr. Feng Jianping, Deputy Director of ToQL Organizing Committee and attended by key personnel of the organizing committee as well as local media. Mr. Luo, Deputy Governor of Qinghai Province also presided over as a distinguished quest. This was the first step in preparation towards the improvement of the 10th edition of ToQL.
Mr. Feng Jianping, co-chairman of the meeting, confirmed that the Qinghai Sports Bureau will continue to support Tour of Qinghai Lake continuously to achieve these goals:
- To promote and support cycling sports in China and Qinghai Province to be more popular and succeed in international races.
- To make the Tour of Qinghai Lake cycling event the pride of the Qinghai people and the best event on the continent and well known around the world.
- To help improve the tourism industry and economy of Qinghai Province.
- To entertain the people of Qinghai Province.
The ‘Expert Panel’ has come up with the conclusions that:
- There should be more ‘Pro Continental Teams’ from Europe participating in the race. To make the race more exiting and competitive, at least 3 Pro Tour Teams should take part.
- An increase in the prize and start moneys was considered to attract more Pro Tour teams and Pro Continental Teams and other strong teams. At the moment the money being offered is much higher than the UCI stipulates. The start money for the Pro Tour teams will be USD25,000 each while the total prize money will be USD350,000.
- More foreign media should be invited to cover the race.
- More business class air tickets should be considered offered to Pro Tour Team riders and important personnel.
- More attention should be paid to European food in regards to taste, menu and quantity to suit European athletes.
- Should promote the race dominant feature ‘The Highest in The World’ to full benefits.
- Allow more involvement of thelocal cities and towns to create more race awareness and pride.
There were many small matters that ha were raised to bring about improvements and the organizing committee noted all of them. Finally, Mr. Feng expressed his gratitude to the contributors who made it to the meeting with such a short notice and for their valued recommendations.
Reported by: Yanyong Charoenpong, 20.2.2011