Eri Yonamine, the 25-year-old Japanese racer who has posted some impressive results in the early season, earned an automatic selection for the Olympic Games in Rio de Janiero, taking her country's only spot for the women's road race and time trial thanks to her double victories in the national championships in Oshima this weekend.
While her win in the road race over the more experienced Mayuko Hagiwara was hard-earned, her fight to be considered for the Olympic team was an off-the-bike battle that went to the Japan Sports Arbitration Agency (JSAA).
The saga began back in January, when both riders represented Japan at the Asian Cycling Championships. For the road race, the national team coach ordered the team work for Hagiwara, to get as many UCI points as possible. Hagiwara had just come off an impressive 2015 season with Wiggle-Honda, where she won a stage in the Giro Donne and one in the Tour de Bretagne, as well as finishing on the podium of two one-day races. She had firmly established herself in the international races, while Yonamine had not yet competed in major road events outside of the world championships where she has performed somewhat better than Hagiwara.
ADVERTISEMENT
When both riders made the five-rider breakaway at the Asian Championships with Huang Ting Ying (Tapei), Pu Yixian (China) and South Korea's Na Ahreum, they had the numbers in the move. It came down to a sprint, with Hagiwara and Yonamine each sprinting to the line for the final podium spot behind Na and Huang, with Yonamine throwing her bike to the line. Although Hagiwara beat her out for third, the coaches took exception to Yonamine's actions.
On April 26, the Japanese Cycling Federation removed Yonamine from the long list for Olympic selection, stating, "Any rider who doesn't follow the team order, she will be removed from the Olympic team selection pool."
After the Asian championships, however, Yonamine came to the United States and began cranking out impressive results. Only in her fifth year of racing bikes - she had mixed cyclo-cross and mountain bike racing in previous years, but focussed on the road for 2016 - she won a stage in an early season race in California, then joined a composite team for the Redlands Classic, where she finished third overall. The result led to her being picked up by Hagens Berman-Supermint, and she finished seventh at the Joe Martin Stage Race, eighth at Tour of the Gila, won the Mt. Hamilton Road Race and was 11th in the Philadelphia WorldTour race.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest News http://ift.tt/293r3bd
No comments:
Post a Comment