THE first Chinese cyclist to compete in the Tour de France hopes he can help his compatriots rediscover a lost affection for cycling in a country where bicycles were once ubiquitous.

    Ji Cheng had his dream come true July 5 when he became the first Chinese rider to compete at the Tour de France.

    It also completed a personal ambition for the 26-year-old from Harbin in Northeast China as he achieved the clean sweep of taking part in all three Grand Tours, following his participations at the 2012 Vuelta a Espana and last year’s Giro d’Italia.

    “I’m really happy for that and also for my dream since I started cycling, so finally I got there. I’m really, really happy,” he said.

    It’s been a long road for Ji, who started out as an athlete before switching to track cycling in his teens and then moving onto the road.

    He came to Europe eight years ago with Dutch team Purapharm before moving a year later to his current outfit, Giant-Shimano.

    But he has been struggling to make his mark ever since.

    “Shimano China wanted to support some Chinese racers. They wanted someone to go to a European professional team to race, to finally have a Chinese rider start the Tour de France,” Ji explained.

    Ji may rank last in 166th place, but he has won admirers because his job is doing the donkey work and sacrificing himself for his team leader, sprinter Marcel Kittel.

    Speaking from the south of France, Ji said he wasn’t satisfied being the “Lanterne Rouge,” a moniker that comes from the red lantern at the back of a train. But he was positive about his Giant-Shimano team.

    “There’s nothing too disappointing. It’s going really well as a team,” said Ji, who put in long shifts in the front of the peloton in the first week of the Tour. His focus is to make it through the grueling climbs in the Pyrenees and ride down the Champ Elysees in Paris on Sunday.

    Ji said he hoped his presence at European races could raise awareness of the sport because it is only slowly being rediscovered in China.

    “It’s not for work, it’s not about watching the time, it’s just riding bicycles. People discover it’s really nice. You can make a lot of friends,” he said.

    Ji regularly posts photos and updates on his Weibo microblog, where he has a following of more than 16,300 fans. In comparison to other Chinese sports stars, however, his fan base is small. Li Na, China’s first tennis player to win a Grand Slam title, has more than 23 million followers.

    But Ji is hopeful his sport is gaining popularity back home, where most have abandoned bicycles for cars, motorbikes and electric bikes. “When I come back to China on holiday, I see lots of people cycling, hundreds of people,” he said.

    (SD-Agencies)