The 2020 edition of the Colourful Yunnan Granfondo Cycling Festival in Chengjiang has been won by Jia Zhichao and Zhang Xixi. Due to the global covid 19 pandemic the event was understandably reduced to a one-day race of 108 km around the town of Chengjiang in Yuxi, on the north of the majestic Fuxian Lake. The fact that it was just a single day inspired the victory contenders as soon as the green flag went up in the leading car as attacks were launched immediately. It was cold and a bit damp, and the first 20 kilometres had it in them, too, with several steep gradients, some technical descending and a longer hillclimb. Luo Danzhi did his best to break away with a few others and broke up the front of the peloton. But when Jia Zhichao took over and put the hammer down, only Gong Baimo briefly looked like he could match the pace of the talented 27-year-old from Chengdu, who is anything but unknown in our event history. In 2016 Jia Zhichao pulled off an amazing solo of over 70 km to win the Kunming stage. In recent years he was often one of the best rivals uphill of Miga and the Mongolians. Today, though, he went with over 90 km left on the board to the finish!

As announced via our various social media channels, at 15:00 Beijing time today, we open the registration for the single-day Colourful Yunnan Granfondo Cycling Festival in Chengjiang on Sunday, 29 November. Due to the ongoing prevention measures adopted by local authorities, the race of 108 km will be limited to 300 people. Those 300 slots will be handed out this afternoon on a first come, first serve basis.

Many people have been contacting us since last week with the question ‘how to register’ for this year’s edition of our Colourful Yunnan Granfondo Cycling Festival. Traditionally, July is indeed the month when that happens. 2020 is obviously very different from what we have all become used to. While our event, scheduled for 7-14 November, is still ‘active’ and by no means cancelled, we are compelled to wait with the opening of registration until China’s Ministry of Sports gives the green light for mass participation sports events to take place in the country again. We are encouraged by strong signals we picked up in the last two weeks that this announcement may be coming soon. We therefore ask for your patience once more, and will update you as soon as the situation allows us.

As the world continues to cope with the corona pandemic, there have been positive signs for a return to some kind of normal life in several Asian countries including China. Following discussions with the relevant authority in Yunnan Province, we would like to emphasise that the Granfondo Yunnan event remains on schedule for 7-14 November 2020. We cannot yet provide any further details on the precise look of all six stages, but as we mentioned in our latest statement back in February, you can take the 2019 programme as guideline.