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Tour of Japan preview · 14/05/10
Previewing the Tour of Japan with Zak Dempster.
The team are currently in Osaka preparing for the Tour of Japan where six of the squad will take part in this stage race set over 7 days, beginning on Sunday. With a few days until the race starts and the effects of the long journey beginning to fade, the riders ventured out today with a local rider by the name of Ise for a 2 hour spin. This afternoon I caught up with Zak Dempster, one of our Aussie contingent and someone who’s ridden this race a number of times before. I started off by asking him about his previous experiences of the race:
“I rode it first in 2007, I was third on the first stage and 5th in the 4th stage I think, then in 2008 I won the first stage I was third on the final stage. That year Cameron Mayer won the GC (now rides for Garmin Transitions) and Wesley Sulzberger (now with FDJ) also won a stage so my experience has always been good here with the teams I’ve ridden with.”
Chatting with Zak it’s clear that he feels happy to be back in Japan and when you look at Zak’s palmares that’s hardly surprising, there’s more than one good result achieved here in Japan. With his stage win at Tour of Japan and a top 5 on GC at the Tour of Hokkaido, I asked him if there was something special about Japan that plays to his style of riding:
“I don’t know, when I won here they asked me pretty much the same thing, I just really like it here, it’s cool. I like a lot of places though but that doesn’t really mean I’m going to ride well though, I like Italy, but it doesn’t mean I’m going to climb up Zoncolan like I’ve got a rocket up my bum! The style of racing is similar in a way to amateur racing in Europe because basically they’ve got endless agression so the race is really flat out from the word go to the finish. There’s no point where you really chill out, whether there’s a breakaway or you’re in the third group they’re always attacking. That’s understandable because for them this is the biggest race of the year.”
So having established that the more anarchic and chaotic style of racing was one that seems to suit his own abilities I went on to ask Zak about the sport itself here, it’s popularity and what we could expect to see out on the road in comparison to a race like the Lincoln Classic where Rapha Condor Sharp won last weekend:
“It’s a really beautiful race, the Osaka stage is often a good day because it’s fairly central to the city, a lot of fans come to the first stage and the last stage is really popular in Tokyo as it has a big cycling community. The others stages aren’t massive crowds, nothing like say the Tour Series or Lincoln but there’s still enough people to give it atmosphere, it gets a lot of publicity too, the website has a video update every day [toj.co.jp/toj14 for more info] and thre photos are really good too. I think there’s a pretty wide following in Japan from the cycling community but in terms of crowds the first and last stages are great.”
And what about the fans? Having seen the curious reaction of your average person on the street to a lanky foreigner in their midst (people generally seem really excited to see foreigners but are at the same time incredibly polite) and seen the stereotypical hysteria for icons like David Beckham, I wondered if the team would be pursued at every turn by hordes of manic fans desperate to see their heroes and get an autograph or a picture. Fortunately Zak put me straight before I could pick up the phone to call Daisuke, our Rapha man in Japan, to book security!
“It’s reflective of Japan in general that as you walk down the street you get stared at a little bit, but the Japanese the Japanese are the most ridiculously polite people you’ve ever met and it’s really humbling, really cool. They’ll do anything for you so it’s a nice feeling and refreshing to be around. It’s a really happy place to come, the hotels are good, they’re really accommodating of foreign riders.”
Marks so far, 10 out of 10 for the Japanese welcome, the atmosphere, the people, but what of the race itself? I asked him to give me a stage by stage run down of the race and how it compares to some of the races fans in Europe might be more familiar with. So, in the words of the man who’s ridden here twice before, here’s the inside line on what to expect from the next week here in Japan:
Stage 1:
Before the race gets underway on Sunday there’s a criterium to be ridden, not part of the general classification, but with a bonus for starting and another one for finishing there’s every reason to race, an ideal warm up in many ways for what’s to come that afternoon, a 2.65km prologue around Osaka’s Daisen Park circuit to give the general classification a shake up and sort out convoy positions for the team car once the race hits the roads properly.
“For me personally I’m not sure, it’s normally good for me at a distance like that, I don’t want to go out on a limb as I’ve not trained specifically for it but in Tour of Britain I was 4th on a stage like this. Equipment wise we’re just on standard road bikes, it’s just part of a trip like this, I’d still be disappointed with anything outside of top ten.”
Stage 2:
The second stage is a 121km road stage based on a 10.1km circuit near to Nara City with the start finish itself on a small climb:
“Finishes on the hill, not an ultra hard hill, about 2km long and the rest of the circuit is quite winding. A breakaway went last time of 20 guys and once they have 30 seconds they’re out of sight, the circuit is round a lake, a really beautiful part of the world. In away it’s a lot like the Lincoln but the climb’s not as steep.”
Stage 3:
Based around the Mino Washi Paper Museum Course, this stage covers 7 laps of a longer 21.3km course plus an additional roll out from the official start to give a total of 160.7km.
“A couple of climbs, but this is a sprint day or a small group. At least 30-40 riders should still be in contention on the last climb with 4 or 5 km to go. The finale is like San remo, you come to the top then it’s a mad descent, then at the bottom you go hard right onto a canal and it’s 1km straight to the finish, a really cool stage.”
Stage 4:
12 laps of 12.2km on a circuit around the Shimohisakata Course with a finish off the main lap to give a total of 148km of riding for the day.
“Hard, reminds me of the Australian national champ circuit, the climb goes up for 3km in total, 2km of which is ok, the last 5 or 600m is super steep. A race of attrition where you might have a breakaway of which a few will hang on when the GC riders start to go. Expect 20-30 riders to come to the final climb and onto a bunch sprint. 7km to the finish from the climb, that day I’d expect to suit Darren & Kristian.”
Stage 5:
Following on from a rest day, the iconic stage of the race sees a slight change of format as what has previously been a mountain TT is replaced with a mass start road race up the side of Mount Fuji the stage climbs to nearly 2000m in just 11.4km having started just above 800m. One for the mountain goats without doubt.
“Unlike anything most people will ever do, a 12 or 13% average for 11km, and bear in mind that the first 4km is maybe 6% max, the last bit’s ridiculous. A stage to survive, I just drag my sorry carcass up there. One of the things about the Tour of Japan is that it has an aura about it because of Mount Fuji, if you get up it quick you’ll be up on GC and you can obviously climb. I guess that the Japanese will attack straight away, I’ll just ride in the bunch till 40 or so have been dropped then ride in.”
Stage 6:
8 laps of 12.2km to total 97.6km around the Japanese Cycle Sports Center, home to the Japanese Keirin School form the basis of the penultimate stage of the race. The map of the course seems not to have a meter of straight road on it and the profile reveals a total of 5 climbs, each climbing around 100m in altitude according to the course profile. After the previous days ordeal this looks like another taxing stage that could be costly for any GC contenders who aren’t on their mettle that day:
“Really really hard, only 100km but the road is quite sticky, made of the same stuff as the Keirin tracks out here that enable them to race track at 80km an hour in the wet! Obiously some sort of magical surface and actually quite a lot of fun as it’s really difficult to fall off, you can go really hard into a corner and be fairly confident you won’t fall. I can’t remember the amount of climbing but it’s a lot! That day will finish with only 20 or 30 riders, but at Tour of Japan you can not finish a stage from a certain point and still start next day with a time penalty.”
Stage 7:
112km made up mostly of 7 laps of 14.7km around Tokyo docks, which according to Zak has got a little bit of the ‘Fast and Furious’ about it, however the race won’t be doing much drifting on it’s way around Tokyo on the final day of the race
“GC will usually be done by the time we get here and there’s not much opportunity to gain time in the main. Tokyo sees us start in the centre and ride out to the docks which is really cool. The circuit is an l shape with 2 dead turns, big roads, a lot of people because the cycling community is big. 800m to go is the final corner, a really cool sprint. I expect that day to see a break go, the two Deans, Briggsy, myself perhaps should all be looking to do something that day.”
The race starts on Sunday, and we’ll be hoping to tweet from the team car most days to @raphacondor, hopefully with news of a continued run of success for the Rapha Condor Sharp professional cycling team
