At least five participants were injured as the weekend Cyclothon event brought key highways in Hong Kong to a halt.

cyclothon
Chief Secretary Carrie Lam and the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Gregory So (second left) at the opening ceremony. Photo: GovHK.

Over 3,000 cyclists raced along routes around the territory. Professional cyclists such as Glenn O’shea from Australia and Remy Di Gregorio of France also took part.

Major highways such as the Hung Hom bypass, Tsim Sha Tsui’s Salisbury Road, part of the Stonecutters bridge and Lantau Link were closed. Over 100 bus routes were diverted for the 35-kilometre contest.

tailbacks cyclothon
Photo: Ricky Chan via Facebook.

Roads on some stretches of the race remained open, creating bottlenecks in the race.

YouTube video

Roman Van Uden won the International Criterium race. Cheung Fu Shiu won the Men’s Open while Michelle Tse won the Women’s Open.

The Tourism Board said that they will learn from the experience in planning next year’s competition.

Support HKFP  |  Code of Ethics  |  Error/typo?  |  Contact Us  |  Newsletter  |  Annual & Transparency Report

Tom founded Hong Kong Free Press in 2015 and is the editor-in-chief. In addition to editing, he is responsible for managing the newsroom and company - including fundraising, recruitment and overseeing HKFP's web presence and ethical guidelines.

He has a BA in Communications and New Media from Leeds University and an MA in Journalism from the University of Hong Kong. He previously led an NGO advocating for domestic worker rights, and has contributed to the BBC, Deutsche Welle, Al-Jazeera and others.