Asian Games: Hong Kong ‘can’t let cycling team have no medals’, Ceci Lee says before Hangzhou tilt without retired Sarah Lee
- Ceci Lee carries her city’s hopes for medals in the first Games since podium regular Sarah Lee ended her stellar career this year
- ‘Because Sarah Lee has left the team, there’s a big stress for the endurance group,’ Ceci Lee says
Hong Kong’s cyclists head to the Asian Games next month keenly aware that they have much to live up to in the absence of Sarah Lee Wai-sze.
Lee’s retirement, confirmed this year, has removed a mainstay of Hong Kong’s past three Games squads, but Ceci Lee Sze-wing, who will compete in Hangzhou, sees it as the remaining riders’ responsibility to compensate.
Five gold medals, as well as one silver and a bronze, had been supplied across those three editions by the two-time Olympic medallist, placing a weight of expectation on the new generation. In fact, their city has a proud record of reaching the cycling podium at the past six Asian Games, starting in 1998 in Bangkok.
“This is the first Asian Games for me, I think I’m in good shape, and I don’t want to lose this chance,” Ceci Lee said. “Because Sarah Lee has left the team, there’s a big stress for the endurance group.
“We cannot let the cycling team have no medals, and we are working hard for this.”
Handling the pressure that comes with that track record is something the 22-year-old has had to learn – aided by advice from Sarah Lee herself, who at 14 years her senior is moving into coaching.
The mental aspect will help determine whether the younger Lee can turn her trio of Asian Track Championships medals into Games gold.
“Mentally, most of the time [in the past] I was very stressed before races, but after doing so many races I’m enjoying the game now,” Lee said. “Physically, I know I’m not as good as the Japanese [such as rival Yumi Kajihara], especially in the sprint, but I’m working on it.”
Along with several others of the 20-plus Hong Kong squad riders, Lee has this month been training at altitude in Kunming, in China’s southwest, to put in high-intensity work on endurance. She will need it: in Hangzhou, Lee will ride in the road race as well as in the velodrome.
“In Asia, just for regional competitions, I will go for road and track,” she said. “For the [major global] competitions, I will focus on the track, because it’s too hard [to do both]. After the Asian Games, before the Olympics, I think I will just focus on track, but maybe do some road racing to help improve my endurance.”
Last month’s UCI Cycling World Championships showed Lee how tough it is to combine track and road.
The former allowed her to further her goals at next year’s Olympics by earning Paris qualifying points in the omnium. The latter was about learning from those whose “skills are better than ours”.
“Most of the time we are technically bad, and waste a lot of energy because of bad positioning,” Lee said.
“The gap between me and the European road racers is really far, but I think I learned a lot. It was the first time I’ve raced with so many riders and at that speed.”
