Everybody seems to agree that although one doesn't know yet which rider will win the Tour de France, he will be from the Astana team. On the other side of the spectrum, there is an article on Spiegel Online (in German only) about the two Japanese riders (Beppu, Arashino) who attend the TdF this year.
Interesting that this is only the forth TdF with Japanese participation after 1926, 1927 (Kawamuro Kisso) and 1996 (Imanaka Daisuke). This could also be the first tour in which a Japanese rider arrives in Paris. Kawamuro retired on the first day in both years. Imanaka is now the boss of Intermax and thereby also the new importer of Lighweight.
Well, as long as Arashiro and Beppu each can get back on his bicycle today and neither runs into one of the support cars, they will finish the Tour.
And in 130th and 111th place, they are doing even better in their category than Jerome and I did representing Japan in the Transalp a few weeks back.
Though it looks as if, after seeing Arashiro actually make it in one of the early stage sprints, recently they have just been struggling to complete -- no heroic breakaways, no crossing the gap to join Thor H. on his incredible ride last Wednesday to put to the nail in the coffin of peevish Mark Cavendish's green jersey hopes (never insult a really big Norwegian whose name is "Thor", even if your name is Siegfried or Apollo, and definitely not if your name is "Mark" or "Chad"), no pulling of a train of riders down a valley (like Jerome and David - Transalp Stage 6).
Everybody seems to agree that although one doesn't know yet which rider will win the Tour de France, he will be from the Astana team. On the other side of the spectrum, there is an article on Spiegel Online (in German only) about the two Japanese riders (Beppu, Arashino) who attend the TdF this year. 
Interesting that this is only the forth TdF with Japanese participation after 1926, 1927 (Kawamuro Kisso) and 1996 (Imanaka Daisuke). This could also be the first tour in which a Japanese rider arrives in Paris. Kawamuro retired on the first day in both years. Imanaka is now the boss of Intermax and thereby also the new importer of Lighweight.
Well, as long as Arashiro and Beppu each can get back on his bicycle today and neither runs into one of the support cars, they will finish the Tour.
ReplyDeleteAnd in 130th and 111th place, they are doing even better in their category than Jerome and I did representing Japan in the Transalp a few weeks back.
Though it looks as if, after seeing Arashiro actually make it in one of the early stage sprints, recently they have just been struggling to complete -- no heroic breakaways, no crossing the gap to join Thor H. on his incredible ride last Wednesday to put to the nail in the coffin of peevish Mark Cavendish's green jersey hopes (never insult a really big Norwegian whose name is "Thor", even if your name is Siegfried or Apollo, and definitely not if your name is "Mark" or "Chad"), no pulling of a train of riders down a valley (like Jerome and David - Transalp Stage 6).