Positive lessons from China races

James Wilson (left) leads the pack in the second stage of the Tour of Mentougou. PHOTOS: SUPPLIED

A last-minute trip to race in China has proved invaluable for a young Timaru cyclist.

As part of the MitoQ NZ Cycling Project team, James Wilson jetted off to China on a week’s notice to compete in the three-stage Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) Tour of Mentougou International Road Cycling Race.

The tour was held from October 12-14.

Wilson competed against some of the world’s best road cyclists and came away with some positive results and learnings.

He said his mission for the first stage, which was a 130km point-to-point road stage with 2500m of climbing, had been to support his team-mate Eddie Adams.

‘‘Unfortunately, [Eddie] crashed at 70kmh an hour, 10km into that stage and I was behind him. I stopped, helped him get his bike sorted and rode pretty hard to try and get him as close as I could back to the main group.

‘‘On the main climb of the day he rode back to the main group, which was good, but obviously he used a lot of energy to do that and was a bit sore from the crash. He didn’t have the day he was hoping for and I was pretty spent as well from having to ride harder than I would have liked to help him out.’’

The second stage, an 8.5km flat city circuit, was the race Wilson had targeted as his best shot at a podium.

‘‘The plan for that day was to get in the breakaway and see if the peloton [main group of riders] was going to let the breakaway stay away. It looked like it was going to and we committed fully to trying to win the stage from the breakaway.

‘‘Unfortunately, in the last couple of laps the peloton sped up quite a lot and brought us back. I got caught 2km from the line which was pretty devastating because I was super confident in my ability to win from the group that I was in.

‘‘I managed to get back into the bunch and then I ended up 14th on that stage which is my best ever UCI result. I’m still happy with that and happy with where the form is at heading into the next races, but it was still a bit disappointing to get caught so close to the line.’’

Taking on the Tour of Mentougou are MitoQ NZ Cycling Project team members (from left) James Fouche, James Wilson, James Williamson, and Eddie Adams

Stage three was another hilly endeavour and feeling the fatigue of the previous two days of racing, especially the incident on stage one, Wilson pulled out after completing the first lap of the two lap race.

‘‘There was not really any point in me carrying on for another lap when I was already like 10 minutes behind the leaders.

‘‘It was a good solid three days racing and it definitely opened up some opportunities for myself and the team heading forward to do more racing over in China and Asia as a whole.’’

He said the experience reaffirmed his desire to potentially look at racing full time on the Asian circuit in the future.

‘‘It was quite funny, I was talking to a couple of the other Kiwis and Aussies that I’ve raced with previously and they sort of laughed at us and said, ‘you know, you’ve managed to get an invite to the only race in China with hills’.

‘‘It would be definitely cool to go back and do some races that suit me a wee bit more. We spoke to the organisers that gave us an invite and they’re really keen to have us back for some more races that they organise next year.

‘‘So it’s just making sure that that lines up with our United States trip and the other races that we do.’’

After a highly successful year, Wilson said he was looking forward to building on and taking what he had learnt into 2026.

‘‘A main goal for next year is to consistently be on the podium and winning races at the highest level. Another goal is going to be winning the Chicago Grit, which I placed second overall in this year.

‘‘I also really want to target nationals at the start of the year, I had a pretty good performance this year. I think with a solid summer of training, I can really make a good step and the course in Cambridge next year really suits me.’’

He wished to thank his team and sponsors for allowing him to race at such short notice and making the opportunity happen.