NTN presents 2018 Tour of Japan 8th Stage TOKYO race report

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NTN presents 2018 Tour of Japan News

NTN presents 2018 Tour of Japan 8th Stage TOKYO race report

LAAS wins TOJ final stage and GARCIA wears Green Jersey on podium

NTN presents 2018 Tour of Japan reached to a final stage. 8th Tokyo stage started in front of Hibiya City and headed to a circuit in Oi Futo, with 112.7km in total, making 14 laps of 7km. Many fans packed the circuit which is very flat and good for sprinters.

Before getting into first lap, Keigo KUSABA (JAPAN NATIONAL TEAM), CHEUNG King Lok (HKSI PRO CYCLING TEAM) and Takuya NAKATA (SHIMANO RACING TEAM) formed a breakaway. The chasing group was controlled by Green Jersey wearer, KINAN CYCLING TEAM and the latest gap was about two minutes.

In forth lap, teams who wanted to make bunch sprint, such as TEAM UKYO, AISAN RACING TEAM, TEAM ILLUMINATE and TEAM BRIDGESTONE CYCLING started to control peloton.

In 11th lap, CHEUNG King Lok escaped from the leading group, but just before 12th lap, peloton caught him.

Peloton started to battle to be in a good position for finish sprint and a rider who raised his arms in the finish line was Martin LAAS from TEAM ILLUMINATE.

The final Green Jersey Wearer of 2018 TOJ goes to Marcos GARCIA FERNANDEZ (KINAN CYCLING TEAM) who had a landslide victory in Fujisan stage.

A leader of Point Classification, Blue Jersey Wearer is Grega BOLE (BAHRAIN – MERIDA) who won two stages, and a leader of Mountain classification, Red Jersey is worn by Yuzuru SUZUKI (UTSUNOMIYA BLITZEN) who succeeded in being in breakaway in Minamishinshu and Izu stage, and White Jersey, Young Rider Classification goes to Chris HARPER (BENNELONG SWISSWELLNESS CYCLING TEAM) who was aggressive in Fujisan stage.

Best Japanese Rider was Hideto NAKANE (NIPPO – VINI FANTINI – EUROPA OVINI) who finished 9th place in GC.

Marcos GARCIA FERNANDEZ (KINAN CYCLING TEAM, Green Jersey Wearer)

“I am very happy to win General Classification in Tour of Japan. It was also a great tour for my team to win stages by Thomas LEBAS and me.”

Grega BOLE (BAHRAIN – MERIDA, Blue Jersey Wearer)

“It was very hot today. After yesterday, I didn’t feel good. Today’s stage was easy which is normal in a final stage. It was good to keep Blue Jersey.”

Yuzuru SUZUKI (UTSUNOMIYA BLITZEN, Red Jersey Wearer)

“As a team, it was great to win one stage and Mountain Classification in the end, even we had some troubles. I think we could have done something more, so we would like to carry this experience to next year.”