Latest news with #Dagorne
South China Morning Post
19-04-2025
- Sport
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong cycling target Olympic great for coaching role as leading rider sheds track fear
Chloe Leung Wing-yee will aim for the next step on her redemptive arc at the Hong Kong International Track Cup, as head coach Hervé Dagorne revealed he was trying to woo Australian great Bradley McGee for a role with the city squad. Advertisement The three-day track cup, which begins on Saturday, is doubling as a test event for November's National Games at the same venue. Dagorne said McGee, who claimed 2004 Olympic team pursuit gold, and won two track world titles as well as two stages of the Tour de France, would attend Monday's final day at Hong Kong Velodrome to 'have a look' at the local set-up. 'I want to convince him [to work with us] for the short term, then, if he's keen, he can go for a longer-term job,' said Dagorne, whose vision is for McGee to work 'in parallel' with a still-to-be-appointed track endurance coach. '[McGee] is a really good coach – I will introduce him to the cycling association, and show him the facilities,' Dagorne added. Australia's Bradley McGee (left) wins the seventh stage of the 2002 Tour de France. Photo: AP McGee is currently high performance coach adviser at the New South Wales Institute of Sport. Previously, he was the Australian men's team road cycling head coach, before becoming the country's national road technical director.
South China Morning Post
04-04-2025
- Sport
- South China Morning Post
National Games: Hong Kong cycling coach targets repeat of 4-medal haul in November
Hong Kong cycling head coach Herve Dagorne said it would be a 'tough job' but the team aimed to replicate their medal haul at the National Games from four years ago when the city co-hosts the next edition in November. Advertisement Dagorne, who took over at the start of last year, admitted the team would have few excuses on home soil. 'We're targeting four for this [Games] – this is a very high expectation for me,' he said. 'We need to be good in every field of performance to be able to achieve this. 'The Games is very important for some provinces, and for some mainland athletes it's even more important than the Olympic Games. 'The level is very high, even higher than the Asian Games, but we are working on it. If we achieve all the different fields of performance – the technique, the strategy – I'm confident about the physical side of our athletes.' Ceci Lee (left) returns from the Paris Olympics with coach Herve Dagorne. Photo: Xiaomei Chen In 2021, Sarah Lee Wai-sze, Ceci Lee Sze-wing and Leung Ka-yu combined for four medals – two gold and two bronze medals – in Shaanxi to continue the team's medal-winning streak at the National Games since first taking part in 1997 in Shanghai.
South China Morning Post
12-03-2025
- Sport
- South China Morning Post
No one happy with cycling bosses slashing marquee Nations Cup, Hong Kong head coach says
Herve Dagorne has said nobody was happy that cycling's 2025 UCI Track Nations Cup had been slashed to a single leg in Turkey this week. Advertisement The sport's annual blue-riband competition, outside the World Championships, the Nations Cup has been staged over three legs since it was introduced in 2021, to replace the old multi-leg World Cup. Dagorne, the Hong Kong head coach, said global governing body UCI's failure to find two additional hosts this year was 'concerning for everybody'. 'Every nation waited so long [for news about second and third legs], we were all planning training camps and, eventually, it was for nothing, so it's very frustrating,' Dagorne added. And the UCI had offered no guarantees over a return to the three-leg format next year, the Frenchman said, adding that with the global economy not as robust as previously many countries 'can't afford to host' an event. Advertisement 'My own country is struggling, which is often the way after staging an Olympics,' he added.
South China Morning Post
27-02-2025
- Sport
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong coach tells cyclists to embrace extreme pain or forget major title ambitions
Hong Kong's cyclists must increase their pain thresholds to have any chance of competing for major titles, said head coach Hervé Dagorne. Advertisement The city team won six senior and four junior medals from this month's Asian Track Championships, but Dagorne said his riders would have won more than their one gold had they been prepared to 'go right to the limit'. The gold came for Ceci Lee Sze-wing, in Sunday's scratch race, but Dagorne said the 23-year-old had only herself to blame for not adding a second on Wednesday, after she blew a significant lead to finish second to Mizuki Ikeda in the omnium. 'They all say they did their best, but I don't see any of them vomiting from the effort, or needing to be carried off the track,' Dagorne said. 'I'm not saying they don't go deep into [feeling] pain, but they don't go far enough. 'Our brain has limit alerts telling us to stop when we feel pain. You need to trick your brain, so you create the ability to go deeper. If you feel happy with a silver medal, you won't hurt your body to try for gold. It's down to how much you want it, and never surrendering until the last.' Ceci Lee with her omnium silver medal, which her coach could easily have been a gold. Photo: CAHKC Dagorne, who competed in two Olympics for his native France, said his riders were showing considerable power during intense exercise.
South China Morning Post
08-02-2025
- Sport
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong cyclists ‘go back to school', then beat China for Asian relay medal
Herve Dagorne said Hong Kong's cyclists had benefited from 'going back to school' over their winter Australian camp, after they claimed team time trial mixed relay bronze at the Asian Road Championships in Thailand. Vincent Lau Wan-yau, Mow Ching-yin, Ng Pak-hang, Ceci Lee Sze-wing, Chloe Leung Wing-yee and Yang Qianyu combined to comfortably beat China to a place on the podium. Kazakhstan and Japan finished 19 and five seconds ahead of Hong Kong, respectively, and head coach Dagorne said he 'felt we could get gold', as the female trio of Lee, Leung and Yang chased down their rivals towards the end. After going to the 10-day championships in Phitsanulok with a two-medal target, Hong Kong are well set, with Dagorne expecting both Lau and Leung to fight for individual time trial honours. The city squad spent six weeks training and racing in Australia, before returning to Hong Kong on January 28. Riders and staff had only one day off, before resuming training, then flying to Thailand on February 3. The Hong Kong team toast their success at the Asian Road Championships in Thailand. Photo: CAHKC 'I haven't heard anyone say they were tired or looking forward to coming back,' Dagorne said. 'Everything in Adelaide [where they spent five weeks] was perfect. We were welcome in all the races and the level was high. It showed our team a real cycling culture.'
