If it were not for the new crown epidemic, chen Xiaohua, one of the three major international sports events in Hainan, as the operator of the "Hainan Island International Road Cycling Race" (hereinafter referred to as the "Round Island Race"), is the busiest and most tense time of the year. This world-class cycling event, second only to the "three major tour races", only the organization of the race to prepare for at least 6 months, the service guarantee work during the race is a huge project, the command and coordination difficulty can be imagined.
However, since the end of 2019, due to the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, this world-class cycling event, which has been held for 13 consecutive years, has been away from the arena for two years, and the return date has always pulled the heartstrings of "fans". In the past two years, Chen Xiaohua and his event operation team have "rarely relaxed", but they dare not slacken off. The declaration of creating a "centennial event" is in the ears, the glory of the struggle to achieve "world-class" is vividly remembered, and the mission and responsibility of guarding the golden sign of the "Island Race" have not changed.
Perseverance - pass on the spirit of "round the island" and run every game well
On December 11th, the first "Ring Nanli Lake" bicycle race, the highest level of cycling in Hainan this year, was grandly opened in the beautiful Ding'an. The day before the competition, when the author walked into Chen Xiaohua's office by appointment, he was communicating with the front field staff by phone about the venue layout. From the leader's on-site inspection to the length of a cable, Chen Xiaohua's "remote command" is patient and concrete.
"There is no way, running a game is everything, and problems large and small must be solved in time." This is Chen Xiaohua's opening remarks. In fact, the "Ring of Nanli Lake" event is one of the few outdoor large-scale bicycle races in Hainan this year, and it is also a new brand event that Chen Xiaohua and his team focus on planning this year. The meticulous organization and professional service of this event were highly praised by the participants and spectators. Some runners said that this is the best road track they have ever participated in, with beautiful scenery and professional service, which makes people look forward to coming back next year. In this race, more than 500 runners participated in the ride, bringing together a number of high-level teams and clubs inside and outside Hainan Island, and the event was held in Ding'an, Hainan, which was also on fire in the circle of riders, and the government department was highly affirmative of the success of the event, and strengthened its determination to build it into the highest level of Hainan and a bicycle brand event with regional recognition.
This year's epidemic has been repeated, not only in Hainan, but also in many famous domestic and international sports events have experienced difficulties such as postponement, suspension and even cancellation. "The current situation is very difficult, but under the premise of doing a good job in epidemic prevention and control, we still strive to run as many races as possible, on the one hand, to maintain normal operations, and more importantly, to pass on the valuable experience and professionalism accumulated over the years of the roundabouts, and also to prepare for the return of the roundabouts." Chen Xiaohua told the author that in previous years, in addition to the "roundabout race", the team of "Hainan Ring Island International Road Bicycle Race Co., Ltd." led by him planned and held dozens of large and small events every year. In the past two years, with the chain reaction brought about by the new crown epidemic, the policy environment and market sponsorship of sports events have been tightening, and the number, scale and form of competitions have been greatly affected.
Nevertheless, from last year's "Thousand Mile Ride" human-vehicle relay race, the Hainan Provincial Bicycle League, and then to this year's "Ring Nanli Lake", Chen Xiaohua still insists on organizing several high-level bicycle races at the end of each year. "We have been running the 'Island Race' for so many years and have insisted on an uninterrupted annual event, which is a requirement for ourselves and an agreement with cycling enthusiasts around the world. Since the big game cannot be held, we cannot break the small race, and we must do the level and characteristics, and continue to keep the spirit of the 'roundabout race' on the field. It is gratifying that the large and small events held in the past two years have held a fire, and the professional operation of the "Island Race" has made Chen Xiaohua more confident.
Review - cultivate a professional team and grow together with the competition
Before participating in the "Roundabout Race", Chen Xiaohua had rich experience in organizing large-scale cultural tourism activities, and successfully operated the 3 Miss World Finals in 2004, 2005 and 2007, including the 14th China Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival in 2005, the 2008 Beijing Olympic Torch Relay Sanya Station and other large-scale events. Although the event organization is experienced, it is still full of challenges to lead the operation of large-scale international events such as the "Island Race".
In 2013, Chen Xiaohua became the general manager of the newly established "Hainan Ring Island International Road Bicycle Race Co., Ltd." At that time, after the accumulation of the previous 7 events, the "Round the Island Race" already had a certain international reputation, and the level of the event reached the top 2 in Asia. HC class, the prize money reached a new high of $350,000. It was also in this year that the "Round island race" ushered in a stage of change from "government-organized" to "government guidance and market operation combined". It was in this context that the company "Island Race" came into being and immediately threw itself into the organization and preparation of that year's event.
It's hard at first. Looking back on the experience of participating in the operation of the "Island Race" for the first time, Chen Xiaohua feels that the most difficult thing is the problem of "people". "Large-scale sports events, especially bicycle races, often have a long competition time, involve a wide range of regions and departments, market investment, competition organization, publicity and promotion, personnel and material coordination, logistics support, safety and security, etc., which require professionals to dock services one by one." At that time, there was no professional team and talent in Hainan, and we could only quickly form a team and learn while doing. Chen Xiaohua said frankly that building a professional and market-oriented event operation team is the most important factor for the "Round Island Race" to forge ahead, and it is also his biggest gain in the cycling event industry over the years.
According to the vision of the "Island Race", the realization of standardization, internationalization, specialization, marketization and brand development is the only way for the event to benchmark against the world's first-class. In the early stage of team formation, Chen Xiaohua on the one hand organized key personnel to go to the international competition to learn from the experience, successively inspected and observed the world's top events such as the Tour de France, the Tour de Italy, the Tour de California, and the Tour de Switzerland, and learned the experience of these international competitions, on the other hand, he took the opportunity to establish contact with many professional teams to let more top event organizing committees and teams understand the "Round the Island Race". In addition, Chen Xiaohua, who works in positions such as race route design, track planning, team invitation, publicity and promotion, is often "taught hand in hand, one-on-one".
A good man and three gangs, talking about the experience of leading the team, Chen Xiaohua was very emotional. "We attach great importance to developing team skills and constantly create opportunities to broaden everyone's horizons and give everyone a full exercise," he said. There may be a variety of problems, but it is most important to give everyone the opportunity to try and let them achieve themselves in their work. ”
Chen Xiaohua is pleased that since 2013, the "Round the Island Race" fresh force team he has worked hard to build has become one of the most professional bicycle event operation teams in Hainan and even the whole country after nearly ten years of growth, and can be competent for holding various bicycle events.
The growth of the team has brought endless praise to Chen Xiaohua personally and the "Island Race" brand. From 2016 to 2017, the "Roundabout Race" won the "Golden Bicycle Award of the Bicycle Industry Annual Selection" for two consecutive years; in 2018, at the 4th SportsIN Conference and Sports BANK Awards Ceremony, the "Roundabout Race" operating company was awarded the "Sports BANK 2018 Best Sports Event Operator", in addition, the "National Sports Industry Demonstration Project" and "The First Batch of National Sports Tourism Boutique Events" and other honors came to Chen Xiaohua, as the helmsman of the "Roundabout Race". Become the most well-known "figure" in the field of Cycling in China.
As a result, the brand and influence of the "Roundabout Race" have also risen all the way up: in 2013, the first CCTV stage live broadcast was realized; in 2015, the CCTV full stage live broadcast was realized, creating a precedent for the full stage tv broadcast of the multi-day race of the Chinese road bicycle race; in 2016, the "Round island race" went abroad and cooperated with the Tour de France operating agency A.S.O to achieve global coverage of the whole live broadcast for the first time, and also created a successful case of overseas copyright revenue of China's local live event live broadcast signal. At the same time, the value of the "Island Race" has increased year by year, and in 2017, it began to obtain the overall title of Country Garden, the world's top 500 enterprises, and the comprehensive benefits created by the event in 2018 exceeded 600 million yuan.
Chen Zhenhong, who served as the chief judge of the roundabout race, commented: "The organization of the roundabout race is very good, and our international referee team unanimously believes that the roundabout race is one of the best road cycling races in the world today. International referee Haeprink Luc, who has been refereeing the Roundabouts for five consecutive years, said: "On the basis of emphasizing the importance of sports, the Roundabouts show people a new Hainan in all directions, and then promote the rapid development of Hainan, which in my opinion is a very perfect thing." As commented by all parties, the Round island race ranked first in China in terms of competition organization, media promotion, and the competitive level of the participating teams, and its brand value has been initially highlighted.
Outlook - the goal of "Centennial Event" remains unchanged, promoting Hainan to become a fertile soil for cycling sports in China
In October 2019, the "Roundabout Race" successfully qualified for the newly established UCI ProSeriesEvents, the 14th Roundabout Race, which was originally scheduled to be held in Hainan from February 23 to March 1, 2020, and will be the debut of the UCI Pro Series in China. However, with the sudden outbreak of the new crown epidemic two months later, the debut of the "Island Race" after being upgraded again was forced to be postponed repeatedly until now.
In the face of the unfavorable situation, Chen Xiaohua is still full of confidence in the return of the "Island Tour" event and the continuation of the brand. "The vision of the Roundabout Race to create a centenary event will not change. As the most internationally influential sports event in Hainan, the island race will definitely return as soon as possible. At the same time, creating a centennial event is not something that our generation can accomplish, we must guard this golden signboard well, pass it on, and achieve this lofty goal through the efforts of several generations. ”
2022 is the first decade of Chen Xiaohua's bicycle career. Facing the future, this "leader" in Hainan's bicycle industry is full of bamboo and willing to meet the challenge. "China is in the stage of transformation from a bicycle power to a bicycle power. But overall, cycling is a relatively niche sport. Under the existing policy, we must let the people really participate in the holding of events such as the 'Island Race' and cultivate a deeper mass base. "In Chen Xiaohua's planning, the first thing is to do a good job in classic events such as the "Round the Island Race"; secondly, it is necessary to spread and release the spiritual connotations of cycling such as healthy and happy, bloody struggle, and self-challenge, to infect and attract more people to pay attention to and participate in bicycle sports, so as to cultivate a stronger mass base and form a good cycling culture atmosphere; Finally, sports events have a huge role in promoting the image of the city and driving sports tourism culture, which is from Haikou, Sanya, Wanning, Danzhou and other cities to strive for the first action." The enthusiasm of the host city of the "Island Race" is evident.
In fact, this is also the core pursuit of the "Round island race" for a long time. In previous events, the organizing committee has put social benefits in a more important position, adhering to the road of "sports + tourism + culture" diversified and integrated development, promoting sports culture, driving the cultural tourism economy of the event, promoting the dissemination of urban regional brand image, and devoting itself to social welfare.
A scene that occurred during the 13th Island Race in 2018, I believe that many riders who paid attention to the race were impressed: when the race team passed through the country road, an old lady on the side of the road moved a stool from the doorway to watch and cheered and cheered, vividly interpreting the demand for the race of "let the people sit at the door of the house to watch the game", such a scene is moving.
The roundabout race has been welcomed by the people of Hainan from the beginning, and in many remote places, people rarely participate in such a large-scale and international event. During the roundabout, on the hillside, on the roadside, on the roof, on the balcony, the team went to a crowded alley. The lion dance in Wenchang, the yangge in Sanya, the ethnic minority dance in Wuzhishan, and the tune of Danzhou all left a deep impression on Chinese and foreign players, guests and tourists. This scene of mingling with the audience is the charm of cycling, and it is also the foundation of the "Island Race" to create a "centennial event".
The cities and counties of Hainan, which are the host cities of the "Island Race", have also tasted the sweetness brought by the "event economy" in recent years. During the "Island Race" period, the transformation of cities in each stage was designed with rich interactive links such as "Honor Cycling" and "Happy Carnival", and the direct economic value of catering, accommodation, scenic sightseeing and other direct economic values brought by the event was obvious, and the image of the city also rose with the signal of the global live broadcast of the event. According to statistics, in the four years from 2014 to 2017, the "Island Race" developed most rapidly, the event generated a total of 2.122 billion yuan in comprehensive benefits, of which the economic benefits were 1.53 billion yuan, the social benefits were 592 million yuan, the cumulative on-site viewing was more than 1.3793 million people, and the event broadcast covered more than 180 countries and regions around the world, fully driving the development of Hainan cycling and local tourism and culture-related industries, becoming one of the most influential international cycling brands in China.
Such scenes and achievements have also given Chen Xiaohua an incomparably powerful motivation, "Next, on the one hand, we must always be ready for the return of the 'Round island race' and continue to present it to everyone with the quality of deep cultivation." On the other hand, we must let more international top teams return to China, return to Hainan, and let the Hainan Free Trade Port become a stage for all teams and riders to realize their professional dreams, and a fertile land for the dreams of cycling enthusiasts around the world. ”
Text: Selection
Pictured: Picture of a cyclist profile