NTN presents 2019 ツアー・オブ・ジャパン

18th May, 2019

The pre-race press conference for the NTN presents 2019 Tour of Japan was held at the Sakai Plaza of Rikyu and Akiko (“Sakai Risho no Mori” in Japanese) in Sakai city, Osaka, on Saturday, 18th May, 2019.

Six favorite riders including Japanese who actively race in the world talked about their condition and expressed enthusiasm for the upcoming 8-day stage race.

Marcos GARCIA FERNANDEZ (KINAN CYCLING TEAM)

“We put together a team to work on this race.  Tour of Japan always shows different race development every year, but I want to win again this year.  Our team prepares 100% for the race and I believe to achieve a good result.  I also want to show my performance good enough to let fans enjoy the race.”

Hideto NAKANE (NIPPO – VINI FANTINI – FAIZANé)

“Tour of Japan is an important race for our team.  While Giro de Italia is going on, we also would like to show good result to my teammate in Italy.  I personally want to achieve a better result than last year and let our team win General Classification.”

Takeaki AMEZAWA (LJUBLJANA GUSTO SANTIC)

“I am happy to come back to race here in Japan.  I do my best to win a stage again, but also to be in the top rank in GC.  Our team has good riders, so that I believe to show the best performance as a team.  I think the race will be really tough, since the level is very competitive.  This race is also very important for me to get UCI points for Tokyo 2020.”

Marino KOBAYASHI (GIOTTI VICTORIA – PALOMAR)

“I am nervous now, because there is no pre-race press conference in Europe.  After transferring to a new team this year, I have trained a lot to achieve a good result in Tour of Japan.  Some of my teammates are better than me, so that I think our team can have a good result.”

Nariyuki MASUDA (UTSUNOMIYA BLITZEN)

“I crashed and could not finish the race last year, so that I really want to, first, finish all stages and then achieve a good result.  The race is always different every year and I want to target to win the GC and also stages as a team.”

Saya KUROEDA (SHIMANO RACING TEAM)

“This is our home city and I believe that many people will cheer on our team tomorrow.  That is why I want to show my good performance on the first day in Sakai stage.  My bother belongs to a different team though, it gives me another power to race together and I do my best.”

2019 Tour of Japan will start in Sakai on 19th May, 2019 and continues till Tokyo stage on 26th May, 2019, for 8 days.  The total distance for 8 days will be about 767km.