This is a one team race if I’ve ever seen one, with Rakuten having 10 of the 16 riders present and no other team more than 1. And yet, their win is not a foregone conclusion. There’s one man who could spoil their party and that’s Itami. Let’s see if he can withstand their strength in numbers.
Startlist
Spoiler
Amezawa
Takeaki
Aker - MOT
Takenouchi
Yu
cycleYorkshire
Hiratsuka
Yoshimitsu
Duolingo
Itami
Kenji
GCN Racing
Okamoto
Hayato
Nordstrom - CA Technologies
Arashiro
Yudai
Rakuten Pro Cycling
Hatsuyama
Sho
Rakuten Pro Cycling
Hayakawa
Tomohiro
Rakuten Pro Cycling
Iino
Tomoyuki
Rakuten Pro Cycling
Kinoshita
Tomohiro
Rakuten Pro Cycling
Kuboki
Kazushige
Rakuten Pro Cycling
Kuroeda
Saya
Rakuten Pro Cycling
Kuroeda
Shiki
Rakuten Pro Cycling
Onodera
Rei
Rakuten Pro Cycling
Shirota
Yamato
Rakuten Pro Cycling
Oka
Atsushi
Team Puma - SAP
This might be a pretty smart move: Arashiro attacks with 6 km to go. This way, Rakuten could avoid having to beat Itami in a sprint.
Takenouchi goes after him but doesn’t quite catch up. Arashiro has around 25 seconds on the pack.
Wanting to cover all their bases, Rakuten also takes charge of the sprint preparations, though somehow they managed to get Hayakawa into Itami’s wheel.
But that doesn’t last very long. Hayakawa immediately charges to the front under the red kite, followed by Amezawa. None of this likely matters, though, considering Arashiro’s advantage.
And indeed, the great rouleur takes the jersey! Hayakawa makes it a 1-2 for Rakuten, Itami doesn’t even bother in the end.
Result
1
Yudai Arashiro
Rakuten 2
1h26'31
2
Tomohiro Hayakawa
Rakuten Pro Cycling
s.t.
3
Takeaki Amezawa
Aker - MOT
s.t.
4
Tomohiro Kinoshita
Rakuten Pro Cycling
s.t.
5
Hayato Okamoto
Nordstrom - CA Technologies
s.t.
6
Yu Takenouchi
cycleYorkshire
s.t.
7
Atsushi Oka
Team Puma - SAP
s.t.
8
Rei Onodera
Rakuten 2
s.t.
9
Kenji Itami
GCN Racing
s.t.
10
Tomoyuki Iino
Rakuten Pro Cycling
s.t.
11
Yoshimitsu Hiratsuka
Duolingo
s.t.
12
Yamato Shirota
Rakuten Pro Cycling
s.t.
13
Saya Kuroeda
Rakuten Pro Cycling
+ 1'02
14
Kazushige Kuboki
Rakuten Pro Cycling
s.t.
15
Shiki Kuroeda
Rakuten Pro Cycling
s.t.
16
Sho Hatsuyama
Rakuten Pro Cycling
s.t.
-----------------
.
Japanese Championships - ITT
Rakuten will take the double here, the only question is whether Onodera or Kuboki take the TT title.
Iino is Rakuten’s best chance for a full podium sweep, he sets an early best time of 1h06’36
Oka is the only non-Rakuten medal candidate, and he actually takes bronze by a single second. He does, however, also finish while being overtaken by Kuboki, who takes the best time by a good 2 minutes.
But even that’s not enough to stop Rei Onodera from winning another national title!
Japanese Championships - RR 
