Tour De Korea

I saw a sign in Yangyang that this year's Tour De Korea is about to start. The race starts in Seoul and takes two days to reach Yangyang, then they have some time trials and circuit racing.

I could find no information about this year's race but here are some links from last year's.

Oranckay was all over it last year. Recently he had some connectivity problems but he is the best source for the tour.

I also found a website forum with a discussion about the race.

The Tour of Korea is a fairly hard race. Mike Carter, a friend and racer who got 2nd there last year and 8th this year, told me a little bit about who is elligible to get in the race and what it's like when I saw him while he was here doing it this June.Basically, elite-level racers and professionals are the only racers allowed in. That means that the people who do the race have all been racing for at least a few years. Because there is no road racing for people to partake in to learn to race in South Korea, the 'local' riders consist mostly of racers who compete in track events, and a few who
comprise a road team that travels to different Asian countries to race during
the summer. According to Mike, the track riders have alot of trouble even
finishing each stage, let alone being a factor in the race. Apparently, and to
the behest of the riders who were finishing the stages, the officials were
allowing these local riders to drop out half way through some of the stages and
still start the next-day's stage -- a definite violation of UCI (International
governing organization of cycling) rules. But, being as the race is "the Tour of
Korea," they wanted to be able to say that at least some Koreans finished the
race.

Sorry that I'm still in 'quote mode'. I don't know how to get out. Anyway, I also rode about last year's race but I just rehashed what others said. If you like, check the archive for May 2005.