Serano Takes Tour of Japan

By Paul Oertel

Despite the rain Stage 7 of the Tour of Japan was not a washout. The 77 riders from 16 teams started out from in front of the Hibiya City building in central Tokyo and rolled through the parade section of the race to reach the Oi Futo circuit. The racers took 14 laps around the 7 km circuit. The weather conditions kept the pace to a safe speed but with 2 laps to go Kristian House from Rapha Condor-Sharp Team and Yoshimitsu Tsuji from Utsunomiya Blitzen led a breakaway of 5 riders but they were reeled in by the peloton. This was the first and only breakaway group of the race and they were quickly pulled back into the pack in the last lap of the circuit. It was the Italian rider, Claudio Cucinotta from De Rosa-Stac Plastic, that won the sprint for the finish and the stage.

The overall time leader for the Tour of Japan goes to Christiano Serano, the Italian rider from De Rosa-Stac Plastic, with a time of 16:08:20. Just 01:45 seconds behind him was Andrey Mizurov from the Kazakhstan National Team and 02:15 behind the leader was Alexandr Shushemoin also from the Kazakhstan National Team. Serano also takes the red King of the Mountain jersey which he captured on the Mt. Fuji stage. The points winner was the young Australian rider, Michael Matthews of Team Jayco Skins. Matthews finished the tour with 88 points.