Wrapping Up the Tour of Japan

Stage five was glamorous, as it was held on the Utsunomiya circuit which had been used in the 1990 World Championships which Rudy Dhaenens had won. Again we put on the 26 cogs and needed them. The hill was just over a kilometre with a couple of pretty steep sections. After the long break of the day before the legs were paying the price but I managed to stay in the front, through the use of hitting the climb on the front each lap, until right near the end of the race.

Finally, stage six was held in Tokyo. It was to be the most disappointing day of the Tour for me personally. Another blistering start got the race rolling as attack after attack tried to get away, but with the field flying along at 50km/h nothing stayed out for too long. Buck and Ryan were both attentive at the front and made it into a couple of good moves that ended up coming back. It wasn’t until 20km or so into the race that a break was finally established and I had made the split; the only break of the race to make it to the finish. With several laps left I was hit with an asthma attack, the combination of humidity and pollution overcoming me. Hanging onto the back of the break I was gasping for breath and soon found myself off the back. I couldn’t even stay in the field when they came by and at one point thought I would have to stop riding, even though I was already off the back practically costing. In the end I got lapped and assigned a prorated time, a bummer of a day. Buck did a great ride though, coming in third in the bunch finish behind the break; a nice way for him to finish off the Tour.