Pingtan int'l cycling race attracts record number of riders

Riders line up on the start line of the 2018 Ocean Cup China (Pingtan) International Cycling Tournament in Pingtan, Fujian province, on June 10. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The 2018 Ocean Cup China (Pingtan) International Cycling Tournament took place in Pingtan, Fujian province on June 10. 

Pingtan, an island city located off the coast of Fujian, is the closest place on the Chinese mainland to Taiwan.

Roughly 2,500 cyclists from 26 countries and regions including the United States and Germany competed in the race, setting a new national record in terms of the participant numbers in a single-day cycling event.

Santic-XERO's Hu Hao seized the title in the men's road cycling elite group with a wafer-thin advantage of 0.013 seconds over his teammate Xu Xuan while Peng Yuantang from the Rassine-CCN sneaked onto the podium in third place.

Calling it a neck-and-neck race, Hu said it was a race won by small margins. “I didn’t know whether I had won or not even after crossing the finishing line,” he recalled, adding that the result was largely due to excellent teamwork. “We showed good teamwork in the race, in the middle and final sprinting stages.” he said.

It has been the fourth time the team which Hu raced for has won the race in Pingtan. In 2017, Zhou Keqiang, also from Santic-EXRO, an amateur cycling team in China, won the title.

The race, which celebrates its fifth edition this year, is an annual event held in Pingtan to promote World Ocean Day, which falls on June 8 every year.

Riders compete in the 2018 Ocean Cup China (Pingtan) International Cycling Tournament in Pingtan, Fujian province, on June 10. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Riders compete in the 2018 Ocean Cup China (Pingtan) International Cycling Tournament in Pingtan, Fujian province, on June 10. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Riders compete in the 2018 Ocean Cup China (Pingtan) International Cycling Tournament in Pingtan, Fujian province, on June 10. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Winners of the men's road cycling elite group mount on the podium. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]