Orica-GreenEdge rider to focus on Olympics and Doha World Championships
Shayne Bannan with new signing King Lok Cheung (Image credit: Orica-GreenEdge)
Having defended his Hong Kong national time trial title on Saturday, Orica-GreenEdge's mid-season signing Cheung King Lok claimed the first national road race title of his career to complete the double. The 25-year-old, who also completed the Asian Championships time trial and road race double in January, improved upon his 2015 time against the clock and soloed to the road race win, 16 seconds ahead of Ching Ying Mow (HKSI Pro Cycling Team).
"I am very happy to have won these events," said King Lok. "My time in the time trial was 40seconds faster than my record at last year on the same course."
“I am a better rider than I was three months ago, but the gulf between myself and the worlds top riders is still quite big. It is difficult to see when I will be racing on par with them, but I am happy to come home and take these victories."
Since joining the team in March, King Lok has ridden four one-day European races along with the Tour de Yorkshire, Skoda-Tour de Luxembourg and the Tour de Slovénie where he was 21st on the final stage.
Sports director Matt White explained that King Lok has met all expectations since joining the team and made the move across to Europe.
"For Cheung (King Lok) it has been a big culture shock moving over to Europe from Hong Kong," said White. "It can be a pretty tough transition changing continents and European racing is very different to Asian racing."
"The transition is a work in progress and we see this with all our new professionals, but the pleasing thing is he has fitted into the team very well and is more than willing to learn."
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White added King Lok's second-half of the season will be based around appearance at the Rio Olympic Games in August and Doha World Championships.
"Cheung is continuing his development at World Tour level and is building towards the Olympics and the World Championships in October," he added. "He has a world class background on the track and is showing his versatility by now developing into a world class road racer."
