ST. LAURENT DE LA CABRERISSE, France — It was predictable that Marcel Kittel, the amiable sprinter who has won three stages in this year’s Tour de France, attracted a large crowd of reporters on the race’s rest day Monday.

But while Ji Cheng, the man on the Giant Shimano team who chases down breakaways so that Kittel can do his work, was less of an attraction, he does hold two distinctions. He is the Lanterne Rouge, the rider in the last position over all, 4 hours 13 minutes behind the leader, Vincenzo Nibali. And he is the first Chinese rider ever in the race.

While China is a nation where bicycles, despite a growing influx of cars and scooters, remain an important form of transportation, racing on them is far less common.

Ji started out as a runner. But a dislike of the cold in his northern hometown, Harbin, set him off on a path that led him to the Tour.