Young local riders head to Spain in new initiative by Singapore Cycling Federation

SINGAPORE – Top local cycling talent will get the opportunity of a lifetime to train in Spain with the UCI WorldTour Movistar Team, as part of a new high-performance initiative by the Singapore Cycling Federation (SCF).

On Oct 31, the SCF penned an agreement with Eastern Pacific Shipping (EPS) – who are partners with Movistar Team – at the firm’s office at Millenia Tower.

SCF president Hing Siong Chen said: “We are proud to partner with Eastern Pacific Shipping on an initiative that goes beyond performance.

“The EPS-SCF Spanish training camp will give our athletes and coaches a first-hand experience of what it takes to perform at the highest level, while also igniting passion and belief within Singapore’s cycling community.”

The training camp, from Jan 13 to Feb 3, will see up to four junior men, four Under-23 men, two to four elite women and two national coaches heading to Spain to join Movistar Team.

A pool of 18 riders will have to go through the SCF’s selection process, with criteria to include their race times.

National junior rider Chen Yuk Hao, 16, is looking forward to the opportunity to train in Europe.

He said: “I think it’s going to be very beneficial for me. I’ve never been outside of Asia and I will be able to train with the pros there.

“In Singapore and Asia, there’s really no one in the WorldTour unfortunately. There are pro riders but definitely not WorldTour riders, where they go to the Tour de France.

“It’s a really good opportunity for me to learn from them, or even just experience what they do.”

Fellow junior rider Lem Jia Jie, 17, noted that there are restrictions when training in Singapore.

“Singapore doesn’t have rolling hills or bigger climbs and it will be more challenging over there,” he said.

“There are too many traffic lights in Singapore. Over there you don’t have to stop; it will feel very different.”

While the SCF could not confirm if this would be a one-off camp, its high performance director Shayne Bannan hopes to make it a beneficial and successful experience.

He said: “They’ll (Movistar) bring their experts in nutrition, in recovery, in how to live and train as a professional cyclist.

“Hopefully they’ll be motivated, they’ll be stimulated for the next 10 to 20 years and bring that information back to Singapore.”

This is not the first time that the SCF has inked partnerships to send national cyclists to overseas training camps and attachments.

Goh Choon Huat was the first Singaporean to race for a professional team in Europe. He joined BikeExchange men’s team as a stagiaire – a French term for a trainee or apprentice – from July to October 2021.

In 2022, Darren Lim and Arfan Faisal joined the Australian Cycling Academy (ACA) on an SCF scholarship, which saw them train on the Sunshine Coast for six months.

Chelsie Tan also had a stint in Europe, linking up with Australian professional outfit Team BikeExchange-Jayco.

In 2024,

mountain biker Riyadh Hakim penned a three-year deal

with professional cycling team Asia Union TCS, the first and only team in Asia registered with the world governing body of cycling UCI.

He trained alongside Indonesia’s two-time SEA Games champion Sayu Bella and Japan’s 2022 cross-country eliminator (XCE) national champion Yuta Matsumoto.

“For road cycling, the training environment is very important to learn about the habits and also, more importantly, being motivated by the people around who are highly motivated,” said national head coach Adrian Ng, who is one of the two coaches heading to Spain.

“This is like a domino effect where we have a group of committed, passionate people; it will snowball down to the rest of the community.

“The hope is that one day, we will have a few professional riders in Singapore going up to the Asian stage.”