{"id":245616,"date":"2025-10-28T05:07:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T05:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/245616\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T05:07:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T05:07:15","slug":"dagorne-rebuilds-hong-kong-cycling-from-the-ground-up-after-medal-era-ends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/245616\/","title":{"rendered":"Dagorne rebuilds Hong Kong cycling from the ground up after medal era ends"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">When he was named the city\u2019s cycling head coach in March last year, Herve Dagorne briefly paused to consider that \u201call the guys who brought medals to Hong Kong had retired\u201d.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">In their place were young, enthusiastic and willing riders, but no one who could yet hold a candle to Sarah Lee Wai-sze, Leung Chun-wing, Cheung King-lok, Pang Yao, Leung Ka-yu, Ko Siu-wai, or reaching further back, the inimitable Wong Kam-po.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cI had to start with a new generation, there were no leaders, they had been the substitute riders,\u201d Dagorne said. \u201cWe also didn\u2019t have much young talent coming behind.\u201d<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Where some would have seen a poisoned chalice, Dagorne spied only opportunity and potential.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">For starters, he noted that Hong Kong\u2019s 7\u00bd-million population is larger than those of traditional cycling strongholds Denmark (roughly 6 million) and New Zealand (about 5.3 million).<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Dagorne shares some advice with 24-year-old star rider Lee. Photo: Jonathan Wong\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/43cb2d77-094b-44b7-9e2c-fd405385b180_42776ef4.jpg\" title=\"Dagorne shares some advice with 24-year-old star rider Lee. Photo: Jonathan Wong\"\/>Dagorne shares some advice with 24-year-old star rider Lee. Photo: Jonathan Wong<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">When John Morling became the local football association\u2019s technical director, around the same time as Dagorne\u2019s appointment, he made a similar point. Why should Hong Kong\u2019s footballers not qualify for major tournaments, Morling questioned, when Croatia, a nation of around 3.9 million people, were reaching World Cup finals and semi-finals?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When he was named the city\u2019s cycling head coach in March last year, Herve Dagorne briefly paused to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245617,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[146060,53572,146053,64,63,37819,37818,146059,146054,512,37817,28153,784,146070,6693,2057,53579,10340,146068,146062,10268,146065,146061,146063,32421,36448,1736,146056,146071,49419,146055,14640,146064,2020,85,80270,146058,146066,146057,37815,57489,37814,146069,146067],"class_list":["post-245616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-anthony-peden","tag-asian-games","tag-asian-road-cycling-championships","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-ben-kersten","tag-ceci-lee-sze-wing","tag-cheung-king-lok","tag-cheung-shi-ho","tag-china","tag-chloe-leung-wing-yee","tag-croatia","tag-cycling","tag-daniel-yip-hon-man","tag-denmark","tag-europe","tag-herve-dagorne","tag-hong-kong","tag-hong-kong-sports-institute-hksi","tag-john-morling","tag-kazakhstan","tag-ko-siu-wai","tag-leung-chun-wing","tag-leung-ka-yu","tag-los-angeles-2028-olympics","tag-national-games","tag-new-zealand","tag-ng-pak-hang","tag-pang-yau","tag-paris-olympics","tag-sarah-lee-wai-sze","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-shen-jinkang","tag-spain","tag-sports","tag-sports-federation-and-olympic-committee-of-hong-kong","tag-tour-de-langkawi","tag-tour-of-poyang-lake","tag-tour-of-taiwan","tag-tour-of-thailand","tag-uci-road-world-championships","tag-vincent-lau-wan-yau","tag-wong-kam-po","tag-wu-chun-yin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}