The head coach of the Hong Kong, China cycling team, Hervé Dagorne, said the squad hopes to secure at least five medals at the upcoming Asian Games.

The team is fielding 13 male and 10 female cyclists to compete across disciplines in track, road, mountain bike and BMX racing.

“We have a target on my shoulder of five medals; we hope this is what we should achieve if everything is going well,” Dagorne said.

“Everybody is in a good dynamic. I'm really happy about the training currently and good mood, good atmosphere, so it's all going well so far.”

Hong Kong, China captured six cycling medals at the last Asian Games in Hangzhou in 2023, with a gold, three silvers and two bronzes.

Dagorne said the toughest opponents in the track races this time will be the national team and Japan.

As for the road races, while Kazakhstan remains a major threat, the head coach also pointed to an Uzbek rival who recently switched nationality from Russia.

He said Vincent Lau and Chloe Leung, who will both compete in the road events, travelled to Nagoya last week to familiarise themselves with the 23-kilometre circuit – a course featuring extended climbs and technical drops through rural terrain – and prepare for rainy conditions, something they expect during the Games.

“It's a narrow road; it's just the size of a car, very slippery and in the middle of the forest... a lot of technique. So the weather can change the race,” Dagorne said.

“Last weekend I was just praying that it could rain because we would be ready to afford this kind of situation, make the choice for the tyres, the pressure, the kind of wheels we are using.”

Leung noted that she is behind schedule in her recovery from a fractured finger sustained during a race in late July, and was worried that it might affect her performance at the Games.

Meanwhile, Ceci Lee – who bagged two silvers and a bronze in her Asian Games debut in Hangzhou – said she hopes to do even better this time round as she challenges for gold.

She said she will focus on track events in Nagoya.


Edited by Edmond Fong