Oh good, second China tour is cancelled.

Those of us who watched the Tour of Beijing last year, and who coughed and spluttered in sympathy with the athletes ruining their lungs out there will be happy indeed to hear that the UCI have cancelled the second China tour, the tour of Hangzhou (catchy name, huh?).

Cycling News reported on the cancellation of Hangzhou, saying that there just wasn't enough time to get it ready for this year, which is the good news.

The bad news is, Pat McQuaid commented "the decision to postpone the organisation of this event will have no negative consequences on the project."

Drat.

That means it will be back next year.

Why do we have to have China-based races in the World Tour? Yes, I know, the word "world" is a bit of a hint, but is it really necessary, bearing in mind the tiny, tiny number of Chinese pro-cyclists?

It's a long way to go, the smog is appalling, some teams can't afford to ship a full set of equipment out there, and judging by last year's tour, the general public in China are not the tiniest bit interested in it.

From memory, there were about a dozen people watching it, last year. I can't find a post referring to it, mostly because I can't remember what time of year it occurred (other than Smog Season) and frankly I can't be bothered to look it up. But I rather think that if I did a race report on the event, it would have been pretty scathing about the disinterest from the public, the fact that spectators were apparently excluded from the finish line on at least one day, and don't get me started on the podium girls.

So here's a question: if I, as a cycling viewer, don't want to watch a China tour: if the Chinese public aren't interested in attending: if the organisers of the first one - Beijing - got so much wrong, and the organisers of the second have had to admit that they just aren't ready, then why are we bothering?

In fact, the real question has to be: has anyone asked the riders if they even want to go to China to race?