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Miyazawa victorious in a season belonging to Tabriz Petrochemical |
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The Tour de Hokkaido, on Japan's northernmost island, brought the curtain down on an eventful and uplifting UCI Asia Tour 2008-2009 season.
The overall individual winner of the UCI Asia Tour had already been decided, with Iran's Ghader Mizbani Iranagh's (Tabriz Petrochemical) lead in the rankings not likely to be affected by the fact that he and his closest rivals in the rankings would not be present at the Tour de Hokkaido.
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Title:
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UCI Asia Tour: Miyazawa victorious in a season belonging to Tabriz Petrochemical
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Date:
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05.10.2009
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The Tour de Hokkaido, on Japan's northernmost island, brought the curtain down on an eventful and uplifting UCI Asia Tour 2008-2009 season.
The overall individual winner of the UCI Asia Tour had already been decided, with Iran's Ghader Mizbani Iranagh's (Tabriz Petrochemical) lead in the rankings not likely to be affected by the fact that he and his closest rivals in the rankings would not be present at the Tour de Hokkaido.
The Japanese race, held from September 9th to 13th, came down to an interesting battle between two Japanese riders, Takashi Miyazawa (EQA-Meitan Hompo – Graphite Design) and Taiji Nishitani (Aisan Racing Team). The two were battling it out not only for eighth place in the overall season's final rankings, but also to show who was the best sprinter from the Land of the Rising Sun.
It was eventually the 31-year old Miyazawa who took honours: he seized the leader’s jersey after the opening day’s time trial which he finished one second ahead of Nishitani. Miyazawa was narrowly beaten by compatriot Kazuhiro Mori on the second stage and had to wait until the penultimate stage from Asahikawa to Iwamizawa to register his second victory.
In the meantime, veteran Estonian star Jaan Kirsipuu chose the Tour de Hokkaido to return from retirement, riding for the Malaysian outfit Letua Cycling Team. The 39-year old, a multiple stage winner in the Tour de France and once holder of the coveted yellow jersey in that race, took victories in the third and fourth stages at Hokkaido.
Miyazawa held on tight to the leader's jersey and sealed eighth spot in the final UCI Asia Tour 2008-2009 rankings, the best placed Japanese rider this season.
The season was one of multiple successes for Iranian team Tabriz Petrochemical, which dominated almost every race it entered.
The 34-year old Mizbani registered three overall victories this season: in the Tour of Indonesia in October last year, followed by the Tour of President, in Iran, and the Tour of Singkarak, in Indonesia, in May .In July, he finished second in the Tour of Qinghai Lake in China, behind his Kazakh team-mate Andrey Mizurov, who emerged as the first Asian rider in history to have won the hors classe race. Mizurov finished second in the final individual rankings with 368.5 points, just 16 less than Mizbani.
Unsurprisingly, Tabriz Petrochemical finished with an impressive 1015 points, emerging the victorious team in the UCI Asia Tour this season, almost 400 points ahead of second placed Doha Team of Qatar. With their army of powerful riders, Kazakhstan emerged on top of the overall nations' rankings ahead of Iran, Japan, Malaysia and Uzbekistan. |
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