This is a story about winning my first professional race on the last day of my career. Imagine that. I’ve been a professional since 2009 and I’d have to wait until the end of 2018 to win my first race. It happened in Japan, Tour de Okinawa. I remember so much from the day. We had to wake up at 4am for the race. This was a first for me in my life. Here I am, it’s the last day of my career and I have to be up at 4am. It was completely dark. It got a little better later on but when we started, the light was still low.
The amateurs started after us. They did the same course as us. After the first lap on the long climb that comes mid-race, we started catching the last riders in the amateur race. This was another first for me. I’ve never had to navigate pass other riders in a race. We passed them in the downhill and it was very tricky. I was thinking, “this is the last day of my career, if I crash here with amateurs while trying to win my first bike race, I will kill myself.”
I was in the breakaway with 11 riders and all the big teams were represented. I’ve made many attacks to get in the breakaway in my career. Never has a break succeeded after I made the first attack off the front. I was the first to attack after 30 kilometres and the gap just opened.
Are you keeping up with me here? You can see it was a day of many firsts.
- First time waking up at 4am.
- First time passing other riders from a different race on the same course.
- The first time I initiated a breakaway and it got away.
At first, I thought “What am I doing here, I have to save energy, why are you in the breakaway you idiot?” But after 10 kilometres the gap was 5 minutes, so I said full gas, we go. With 5 kilometres to go, I attacked. I was scared they were going to catch me with a few metres to go because this has happened to me so many times before.
In the Tour de Croatia in 2017, they caught me with 20 metres to go. I got sixth place. Go look at that results. It looks like I was part of the sprint finish but I was in the breakaway for 150 kilometres. I believed I was going to win and the peloton caught me with 20 metres before the line. 20 metres! I cried so much. How was it possible? Why do I have so much bad luck?
In the Giro d’Italia in 2015, there was a stage finish close to my home. It was after the rest day. I decided to go in the breakaway because I knew in a day after the rest day, no one wants to go in the breakaway. So, I spoke to my friend Alessandro Malaguti who was racing for Nippo Fantini. He lived in the town of the stage finish, Forlì. I also spoke to Matteo Busato racing for Souteast. He was my teammate for three years when I was an amateur. Oscar Gatto was there and he was my teammate the year before. So, the breakaway was full of friends. We arranged before that we would attack. I thought for sure the peloton would catch us but at least we we can have a nice day with so much support because I was close to my home.
We went really fast at the start then the last 50 kilometres we had a tailwind and started going full full full gas. It was maybe one of my best days as a rider. I did longer pulls than the others. I felt great. In the final, with 2 kilometres to go…remember, Malaguti is a good friend of mine. We train a lot together because we live in the same city. He was on my wheel and made a gap for me, so I attacked full gas. I thought my friend opened a gap for me for sure to help me. I never looked back, I just went. They caught me with less than 200m to go.
After the race, many people told me why did Malaguti flick you? You lost the race because of him. I didn’t believe them, so I watched the highlights in the evening. Then I saw it. I lost because of him. He was messing me around. I had a fight with him and never forgave him. Only until Okinawa did I say to him, Alessandro now I can finally forgive you in my heart because I got a special victory, finally.
Ok, back to Japan. The breakaway was down to just a few guys. I went full gas with 5 kilometres to go and I didn’t look back for 1.5 kilometres. The first time I looked back, I saw I had a good gap. They were far from me. I realised it was the right attack. I was in the breakaway with Freddy Ovett. He is not a bad rider. His father is an Olympic champion in the 800 metres. Feng Kai Chun from Bahrain Merida was also there. The level of the race wasn’t so high but there were some good riders I had to beat. When I saw I was going to win, I started to cry…the emotions were big big big.
In my mind, there was just so much happiness. I didn’t think something like this was possible. To finish in this way was a dream. I did so much work for my teammates over the years but a personal victory is special. After so many years, I think the universe was on my side.
If I retired without a victory, I think I would have missed something. It was a good career but a victory is really special, even though it was a small race. A dream turned into a fairy-tale.
Photography: Sonoko Tanaka
Tags: cycling, japan, road cycling Last modified: Jan 20, 2020
