The 2026 Tour of Shanghai - New Cities, the opening event of the city's autumn cycling season, gets underway from Friday to Sunday.
As Shanghai's first men's road cycling event on the UCI Asia Tour, this year's race covers around 300 kilometers and passes landmarks across the city's five new towns of Jiading, Songjiang, Qingpu, Fengxian, and Nanhui, drawing 122 riders from 21 top professional teams representing 12 countries.
On the eve of the race, riders held a parade along the Bund. The roughly 6-kilometer route started at The Grand Halls, a north Bund landmark transformed from a century-old warehouse and dockyard complex, and ran along the historic riverbank, showcasing the area's most iconic scenery.
"Very beautiful. I've never seen it before, so it's good to see," said Luca Verrando from UCI ProTeam Solution Tech - NIPPO - Rali.
Also from the team, Tommaso Nencini, who participated in the Shanghai Tour last year, noted its high level of competition.
"I remember last year was a very fast race. I think this year will be even faster because it's totally flat. I will try to win," he said.
Lucas De Rossi of China Anta-Mentech said his team is aiming high.
"We come for the winner's stage and also we want to win the GC (General Classification)," he said.
For the first time, the event is opening its full professional course to amateurs. On Sunday, after the professionals complete the Fengxian-Nanhui stage, 20 elite amateur teams will ride the same route. Online and offline virtual cycling events and second-screen venues are also expected to draw wider public participation.
"Through the event, we showcase to the world the development of Shanghai's five new towns," said Zhang Weiyao, deputy general manager of Shanghai Jiushi Sports, Entertainment, and Cultural Tourism Group, co-host of the event.
The autumn cycling season will continue with the Tour of Chongming Island UCI Women's WorldTour and the UCI Track Cycling World Championships, bringing together elite riders and cycling enthusiasts from around the world to experience Shanghai's urban appeal and the excitement of the sport.
Tour of Shanghai 2026 race kicks off autumn cycling season
As the world grapples with multiplying crises and a dangerous decline in international trust, a senior Uzbek lawmaker has called for greater unity and multilateral cooperation to tackle shared crises.
Sodiq Safoyev, first deputy chairman of the Senate of the Oliy Majlis (national parliament) of Uzbekistan, said the world is navigating a complex era of "polycrisis" marked by wars, pandemics, and growing division, and that the response should not be to create new dividing lines, but to unite people and act collectively.
"Today we're living in a difficult time worldwide. Even some academicians defined the contemporary world as in a time of polycrisis or simultaneous occurrence of several catastrophic events, indeed, wars, pandemia, fragmentation of the world. And I think that it's a time not to create new division lines, but to unite the people and act together, vis-a-vis global challenges. I think that such an idea, proposed by his Excellency, Chairman [President] Xi Jinping, is very important, because it brings very clear idea that today we need to build cooperation and to think about the next generation's destiny, to save the earth from the challenges which we have," said Safoyev.
Safoyev also pushed back against the notion that deglobalization has taken hold, saying that international trade, information flows, and migration remain unstoppable. However, he warned that rising interconnectedness has been accompanied by a dangerous decline in mutual trust and understanding.
"Some people think that the process of deglobalization has started. I don't think so. I don't think that it's possible to stop international trade, flow of information, migration of people who want to study abroad, who want to work abroad. Globalization is not stopping and that's why interconnectedness of the nations only increases. But at the same time, simultaneously, we're absorbing diminishing of trust and understanding. It's a very dangerous combination. We connected, but we don't understand each other," said Safoyev.
Acknowledging that international organizations fail to meet public expectation in resolving conflicts, Safoyev said that regional mechanisms such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and cooperation between China and Central Asian countries offer models for effective cooperation.
"And I think that international organizations today are not matching expectations of the people in the regard with preventing conflicts, preventing the problems and resolving them. And it's the most challenging issues of the contemporary world. And I think that's why the experience of Shanghai organizations [the Shanghai Cooperation Organization] and cooperation between China and Central Asian countries is very important to demonstrate that it's possible," said Safoyev.
He also said that Central Asia serves as a prime example of overcoming fragmentation and uniting, as the region has transformed from one plagued by border disputes, suspicion, and resource conflicts a decade ago into a cohesive, cooperating bloc.
"From the more positive side, I'd like to note that the situation in Central Asia is something which might give us some more optimism. Twenty years ago, even 10 years ago, Central Asia was divided, divided by suspicion, divided by unresolved issues like unresolved borders, many conflicts of interest in the regard with the using the water resources of the transnational water resources etc. Today, in a relatively short time, period of time, Central Asia became completely different, more and more consolidating, uniting, having joint approach to the regional problems. And that's why Central Asia started to lure more attention worldwide. We're seeing that [there are] more interests of the global actors with the Central Asia, and I think that it demonstrates to the whole world that it's possible today now to overcome fragmentation and to unite. And that's why we, as usual, have both some concerns. But at the same time, we must be optimists in looking ahead," said Safoyev.
He also said that wisdom of humanity and visionary leadership inspire optimism that building future of common shared destiny is possible.
Senior Uzbek lawmaker calls for regional unity, cooperation amid global "polycrisis"
