Tour of Japan - Osaka

the 8th Tour of Japan is a six day race spread over eight days. The format of the race, which was made up of circuit races each day, was different from any race that I had done before. Going into the race we were expecting that racing on circuit races would be tough, little did we know how tough the racing was going to be. Three of the six races were super tough on hilly circuits that slowly whittled down the field.

Our first day of racing, held in Osaka, was on a flat loop run off at a high speed. Making it tough were crosswind and flying tailwind sections that in the end actually split the field. We had put Thorben into the break; they did an impressive ride to stay out ahead of a storming field for much of the race, needless to say they were caught near the end. A strong lead-out for Buck was foiled when he rubbed wheels in what was a pretty hairy and turbulent finish.