Australian rider fastest in sprint to the line
Continuing the momentum generated by his overall win in the Jayco Herald Sun Tour, Nathan Haas (Genesys Wealth Advisers) sprinted to victory in the Japan Cup earlier today. The Australian beat Japanese riders Taiji Nishitani (Aisan Racing Team) and Junay Sano (D’Angelo Antenucci-Nippo) to the line, with former race winner Damiano Cunego (Lampre – ISD) and Yusuke Hatanaka (Shimano Racing) also finishing as part of the five man front group.
The 2007 race winner Manuele Mori (Lampre – ISD) made a big push to take his second victory in the event, attacking with Yukiya Arashiro (Team Europcar) with 15 of the race’s 156 kilometres left. They went clear on one of the course’s hills and opened up a decent advantage. They had a lead of twenty seconds heading into the final kilometres, but were too cautious coming up to the sprint and this allowed the chasers to get close enough to strike.
Arashiro gave up, Mori pushed for the line but was overhauled inside the final 200 metres. Haas was quickest in the gallop, thundering home to his second major victory this month.
Cunego, who won the race in 2005 and 2008, was a little dissatisfied with how things played out. “What a pity for Mori: his attack was strong and with a good timing,” he said. “The race pace was high, I had to dig in to be in the chasing group, but when they joined Mori I was not strong enough to perform a competitive sprint.”
Directeur sportif Bruno Vicino said the team did things right, but that it just didn’t work out. “The team performed a good race, controlling the situation and then attacking thanks to an important action by Mori,” he stated. “Cunego was very useful in the chasing group, but unluckily Mori lost a great chance to win. Anyway, we’re happy to have shown a good show to our Japanese partner.”
The Saxo Bank SunGard team was also taking part and felt that things were going its way until the Polish rider Rafael Majka was hit by mechanical problems when in an important move.
“We had been dominating the race and we had our best card in the front when Rafa (Majka) had mechanical problems when the race going really fast,” said directeur sportif Nicholas Gates. “The timing of the freak accident was obviously horrendous but no one can really be held responsible for that.
“David (Tanner) worked hard for the team throughout the whole day to make the guys did an aggressive race and it’s great to see that they really want to make their mark on things, even if they didn’t get the top result they were eager to get. However, we achieved what we were also here to do – to make the race and show the Saxo Bank-SunGard colours.”
Haas did more than that, taking a very big win for his Genesys Wealth Advisers team and further underlining his ability. He’s just 22 years of age, and seems destined for a ProTeam contract sooner rather than later.