Hi, and welcome to the 2015 Japanese National Road Race Championships, this year coming from the slopes of Mount Fuji. Meiji dominate the start list, with 12 riders spread over a number of smaller squads.
20 riders took to the start line, on a route with will take on two long climbs and a summit finish. Yoshimitsu Hiratsuka, Tomoyuki Iino and Tomohiro Kinoshita lead the list of pre-race favourites, that looked like it was Meiji’s to lose.
A break of 5 riders were allowed to go clear on the first climb of the day, with Yusuke Hatanaka, Kouhei Uchima, Yamato Shirota, Hiroshi Tsubaki and Tomohiro Hayakawa all present. A further two riders, Yu Takenouchi and Masatoshi Oba, were in the gap behind the lead group and peleton, and sadly never made the connection across.
With Meiji well represented in the break, there was no need for them to chase their own riders down, and the break would contest the victory. Defending champion Shirota made his move first, with Hatanaka trying to respond behind.
Hatanaka’s fight back was aided by Tsubaki, but the challenge was proving difficult with Shirota looking strong out front. The pair were working well, but the Sauber rider continued to pull away.
It was fantastic climb from Shirota to take the victory. He attacked hard on the lower slopes, set a great tempo and rode away from everyone else. Hiroshi Tsubaki takes a deserved 2nd place, and Yusuke Hatanaka took the final podium place.
The Time Trial was billed as Fumiyuki Beppu vs Masatoshi Oba in the fight for National Champion against the clock. The flat route around the suburbs of Toyko would be their battleground.
Meiji’s Fumiyuki Beppu was first of the favourites to hit the course, and it was clear from the off that he was not in a good way today. Through the first two checkpoints, he was way down the standings and outside the Top 10.
Oba was much more focused for the race, hoping to use his 7th place in the Road Race as a stepping stone to the National TT title. He was just a few seconds off the pace at the first checks, and was only going quicker the more the race went on.
The best time on the line was caught off camera, as Tomoyuki Iino put in a fantastic early time of 1h11’42 before the line coverage started. Beppu was a long way off that time, and he was quickly followed over the line by Oba, just 14” later.
Oba's time was good enough to take the victory, finishing in 1h11’28. Iino took a surprise second place, with Beppu a disappointed third.
Yamato Shirota
