Ma Haijun was another Chinese rider taking advantage of studying abroad.

Ma showed his potential by finishing third in a stage of last year's Tour of Qinghai Lake. Afterwards, the 22-year-old Qinghai native obtained the opportunity to train in the UCI World Cycling Center this year.

"The training enabled me to improve a lot," said Ma, who has been training in Switzerland for four months.

"I rarely participated in any event while training at home," Ma said, "But since I went to Switzerland, I competed once or twice every week."

Ma thought the rich opportunities of competition gave him more space to improve.

"I'm more aware of the ways of competing and understand how to attack in different conditions," said Ma.

Earlier this month, Ma proved his maturity by wining the 40km individual time trial at the B World Championships in South Africa.

Ma is also speeding up at the Tour of Qinghai Lake. He was ranked 22nd after the first two stages and was the second best Asian rider in Xihaizhen just after Li.

Besides, three young riders represent the UCI Euro pro team Skil-Shimano of the Netherlands at the race, among whom both Jin Long and Ji Cheng were ranked much higher than the Chinese national team's riders except Ma Haijun.

According to Chinese team manager Li Wei, cycling is a sport demanding high professionism. China could only provide limited amount of races for their own riders at home. Therefore, joining foreign teams or training abroad are positive for the Chinese riders to improve.

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