Dodging deer and scary, sodden descents: inside Hong Kong’s Asian Games time trial quest

Chloe Leung and Vincent Lau poised to begin city’s medal challenge in Japan following daring reconnaissance mission with coach Herve Dagorne

After a flying reconnaissance visit to Japan, where they dodged deer and navigated treacherous, rain-sodden descents, the daredevil cycling pair of Chloe Leung Wing-yee and Vincent Lau Wan-yau have equipped themselves with the smarts to launch Hong Kong’s Asian Games campaign in grand style next week.

If it is a bugbear of Herve Dagorne’s that each delegation is allowed only one rider in the individual time trial races that get the Games cycling programme under way next Sunday, then in Leung and Lau, who claimed time trial bronze in Hangzhou in 2023, the head coach believes he has the perfect duo for a glory bid.

A bronze medallist in the discipline in 2018, and fourth three years ago, Leung has impressively rebounded from the gut punch of being controversially overlooked for the Paris Olympics two years ago; delivering a succession of notable performances that included a pair of fine rides in last year’s UCI Road World Championships.

An archetypal mountain goat, she claimed Asian Road Cycling Championships time trial silver earlier this year on a flat route in Saudi Arabia that was entirely unconducive to her climbing and technical strengths. But for a self-confessed mental wobble when she realised she was ahead on the road, Leung would have won.

“It required no skill,” said Dagorne, who is rubbing his hands together over a course in Nagoya that is “in the middle of nowhere, with super narrow roads”. “There are lots of leaves, moose running around and it’s very slippery,” Dagorne added.