Turul ciclist al Beijingului a fost un eveniment sinistru: străzile goale, păzite doar de miliţieni, drumurile pustii, animate însă, din când în când, la un anumit număr de kilometri stabilit de partid, de grupuri de oameni ai muncii dotaţi cu drapele roşii.

Comparaţi doar acest finish din Piaţa Tiananmen străjuită de stafia lui Mao… cu finishurile de pe Champs Élysées la ultimele tururi ale Franţei.

Sau acest instantaneu de pe parcursul Turului Beijingului:

… cu finishul Campionatului Mondial de Ciclism din Danemarca (câştigat tot de Cavendish).

In fine, acesti entuziaşti suporteri chinezi plantaţi de organizaţia de bază la Turul Beijingului:

… cu comentariul de la finala Campionatului mondial de mountain bike, cîştigat tot de un britanic, Danny Hart.

Presa occidentală a scris cu timiditate despre debutul sinistru, fără spectatori, al turului chinezesc.

Un articol de pe Ciclingnews.com, Tour of Beijing slowly opens for spectators, descrie cu acurateţe faptele, dar se face că nu înţelege de ce s-a întâmplat aşa. Fără a pomeni vreodată cuvîntul „comunist” în text, fără a menţiona natura dictatorială a  regimului chinez, autorii articolului ajung în situaţia ridicolă de a dezminţi o ipoteză complet cretină, care, de altfel, nici nu fusese pusă în circulaţie: anume că Uniunea Ciclistă Internaţională ar fi putut cere asemenea măsuri de securitate poliţiei locale (de parcă miliţienii comunişti ascultau de UCI, nu de partid). Altfel, articolul descrie excelent atmosfera în care s-au desfăşurat primele etape ale Turul Beijingului:

Race video revealed empty roads around Beijing’s Olympic village on Wednesday, and from Beijing to Men To Go on Thursday. Some newspapers started calling the Tour of Beijing an „event without any soul”.

Cyclingnews understands Global Cycling Promotion, the UCI commercial arm which organizes the race, never asked for such restrictive safety measures from local police.

Where did the origin of this „no public” problem come from? On stage 1 fans couldn’t access the course because of a double belt of barriers, positioned before the gate of the Olympic village. No one could approach closer than five hundred meters to the start or finish lines.

People in front of the podium were in fact guests wearing official accreditation while the musicians playing traditional music on the route for the caravan and the riders’ passages had apparently been appointed. The rare spectators were wearing a t-shirt with the same colour – successively green, blue and yellow. Standing together near a bus, they were waving a Chinese national flag or one with Tour of Beijing’s logo.

Every fifty meters, a policeman, a soldier or a conscript kept watching, even in the deserted countryside.

Mai încolo, articolul menţionează cu înţelegere posibile diferenţe culturale:

The public’s denial of access to national events is not without precedent. „In 2009, for the 60th anniversary of the Republic’s foundation, the military parade on Tian An Men Square was closed to public.”

In the end, the issue might be cultural as Western countries and China currently have a very different philosophical and political system, a largely different amount of populace to manage, and different approaches about freedom of movement and public safety.

Atât de mari erau „diferenţele culturale” încât, anterior acestui tur, au fost chemaţi la ordine sponsorii principalelor echipe  care, nemulţumite de unele măsuri ale UCI, intenţionaseră să boicoteze Turul Beijingului.

Iată argumentele folosite de Uniunea Ciclistă Internaţională într-o scrisoare de ameninţare adresată sponsorilor celor mai importante echipe de ciclism din lume care doreau să boicoteze competiţia:

„I can also assure you that any team who does not take the start line in Beijing will be brought before the UCI Licence Commission at the end of the year and risks losing its licence and all the associated benefits. UCI doesn’t like involving sponsors in the internal affairs of our sport but in this case we felt that as a sponsor of this team, it was felt important that you should be informed.”

Finally the UCI also allude to how a sponsor’s business may in fact suffer:

„they [the Chinese organisers] will take this as an offence and it could have repercussions of a commercial nature. This event is being promoted by the City of Beijing under the direction of the Mayor of Beijing, Gou Jinlong and the word boycott has a very high resonance in the Chinese culture for different reasons and they will feel that as an insult to the Chinese people.”

Sponsorii – companii occidentale grele precum HTC, Omega Pharma, Lotto, Saxo Bank, Rabobank, etc.  au înţeles cât se poate de clar posibilele repercusiuni comerciale şi s-au conformat: au plătit tributul şi echipele finanţate s-au prezentat la mascaradă.

Experienţa cu astfel de regimuri trebuie să fi plăcut managerilor UCI. La orizont se pregăteşte Rusia: Russia next stop after Tour of Beijing

Rumpf explained that racing in the BRIC countries – Brazil, Russia, India and China – is exactly how GCP wants to help globalise cycling.

„For a project to be successful, you need the full support of the government. Because we had it [in Beijing] we were able to go for the WorldTour [ranking] in year one. There’s a strong governmental support in Russia for sports, they would be behind a Russian WorldTour race.„