Airgas-Safeway confirmed to Cyclingnews today that the team has received a late invitation to the Tour of Qinghai Lake, a 14-day UCI 2.HC race in China scheduled for July 5-18.
The invitation marks the highest-rnked race the second-year US Continental team has been invited to since signing 2013 Vuelta a Espana winner Chris Horner this season.
“We received a very late invitation to the race,” said team principle Chris Johnson. “We had reached out to them for some time now, but like the other races I think they wanted to see the depth of our team.”
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The team and Horner were disappointed earlier this season when Airgas-Safeway didn’t get invited to the Amgen Tour of California, a 2.HC race in May. As the 2011 winner in California, Horner had thought he and Airgas were shoe-ins.
With that opportunity now passed, however, the team has turned its attention to a pair of 2.HC races in August: Colorado’s USA Pro Challenge and the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah, where Horner has finished second to Cannondale-Garmin’s Tom Danielson the past two years. Johnson is hoping the Qinghai Lake invitation is a sign that the team’s fortunes have changed.
“I hope that getting invited to a 2.HC race in Asia will help our chances of getting invited to a similar race or races here in the United States,” he said. “For us to be able to do a race of that level shows that the races in other countries are really recognizing our ability and depth as a team.”
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