SPORTS / U.S.A.
August 1, 2016
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 7
Asians in American sports w Asian Americans in world sports
Japan’s leading cyclist races in his seventh Tour de France
By Mike Street
Special to The Asian Reporter
n recent years, the focus of the Tour de
France has been either on the
frontrunners or the cheaters, but
Asian cycling fans have been cheering for
Japanese rider Yukiya Arashiro since
2009. In 2016, Arashiro participated in his
seventh Tour de France, showing his
strength during one breakaway stage and
overcoming a gruesome injury sustained
earlier in the year to post a very strong
finish.
Arashiro entered the cycling scene in a
rather improbable fashion at 18 years old
in 2002. An avid handball player, he had
never participated in competitive cycling,
but a family friend who was competing in
France inspired him.
Arashiro followed his friend to France to
begin racing competitively. “I never even
saw the Tour de France on television until
I arrived in France, and I didn’t know how
it worked,” he said later. “Initially, I just
wanted to make it to the finish of races.” In
the more competitive world of French
cycling, Arashiro soon began to excel.
In 2005, he won two under-23 champion-
ships in Japan: the National Time Trial
and the Road Race Championships. After
graduating from the junior circuit, he won
Japan’s National Road Race Champion-
ships in 2007, a performance he repeated
in 2013.
Arashiro’s career began to really take off
in 2008, when he finished third overall in
the Tour du Limousin, winning the race’s
second stage. This was his first stage
victory and best finish in an HC (Hors
d’Categorie) race. HC races are one level
below the top-level Grand Tour, which
comprises the three most famous cycling
races: the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia,
and the Vuelta a España.
In addition to his performance at the
Tour du Limousin, Arashiro won both the
Tour de Okinawa and the Tour de
Kumano. This breakthrough year led to an
invitation to ride in the 2009 season with
the Bouygues Telecom team, who selected
him to ride in his first Tour de France.
That year, Arashiro became the first
Japanese cyclist to finish the Tour de
France, crossing the finish line in 126th
place, ahead of countryman Fumiyuku
Beppo. In 2010, Arashiro stood alone as
the first Japanese cyclist to finish two
COMPETITIVE CYCLIST. Japan’s Yukiya Arashiro (right photo), celebrates on the podium after being
awarded the prize for best combative rider during the sixth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 118.1
miles with the start in Arpajon-sur-Cere and finish in Montauban, France, on July 7, 2016. In the left photo,
Arashiro, front, speeds down Val Louron Azet pass during the 17th stage of the 2014 Tour de France cycling
race over 77.4 miles with the start in Saint-Gaudens and finish in Saint-Lary, France.
Grand Tour events after completing the
Giro d’Italia. In that race, he led a
breakaway in the fifth stage, nearly
earning his first Grand Tour stage victory.
Arashiro also finished ninth at the world
road race championships in Melbourne,
the first top-ten finish for a Japanese
cyclist in that event. Arashiro capped that
excellent season by placing 112th in his
second Tour de France, improving on his
performance from the year before.
After securing the Asian Championship
in 2011, Arashiro established another
landmark in 2012. His win in the 2012
Tour du Limousin was the first HC victory
by a Japanese cyclist, establishing
Arashiro among the top echelon of
international cyclists.
That year, Arashiro also competed in his
fourth Tour de France, establishing new
standards for himself and his country. In
the second stage, he finished in fifth place
after a mad sprint to the finish, the closest
he’d ever come to winning a Grand Tour
stage.
His fourth-stage breakaway earned him
the red jersey for being that stage’s most
combative rider. He finished in 84th place,
the best performance ever by a Japanese
rider in the Tour de France. After the race,
he said, “For me, the most important thing
every season is to ride the Tour.”
In 2013, the year Arashiro repeated as
Japan’s road race champion, he won
second place at the Tour de Limousin and
finished 99th in his fifth Tour de France.
He improved that result in 2014 by
winning 65th place, a year when he also
finished the Giro d’Italia for the second
time.
Arashiro showed his resilience in 2015,
as he broke his shoulder in a wreck during
a race in Liege, Belgium. He could not
participate in the Tour de France, but six
months later, Arashiro completed the
Vuelta a España. This made him the first
Japanese cyclist to finish all three Grand
Tour events. Even better, he did so in 65th
place; a month later, he also took third in
the Japan Cup.
Prior to this season, perhaps because of
his grit, Arashiro was signed by the Italian
team Lampre-Merida, who cited his
trailblazing ways as well as his perfor-
mance record. In his inaugural race with
the team, Arashiro took second place at the
Japan companies seek hipness through teens posting to Vine
Continued from page 2
peaked in Japan. Nobi Hayashi, who consults
and writes about technology in Japan, believes
Vine’s trademark brevity is proving its weak-
ness.
“It becomes just one gag after the other,”
Hayashi said.
Vine added a “watch more” option in June,
allowing an attachment of longer video of up to
140 seconds, and up to 10 minutes for some
partners. Vine is also starting to support
opportunities to make money through the clips.
But Japanese, like Americans, are often
turning to rivals like Snapchat. And other social
networks, such as Instagram and Facebook, also
offer video.
Oozeki says she is expanding to other plat-
forms, especially YouTube, for self-expression.
That reflects the sentiments of many of the
Japanese Vine stars, who see their influence on
Vine as a springboard for other online or film
careers.
Hokuto Ikura quit his job at a major company
and moved to Tokyo from Fukuoka to become a
planner at Tokyo-based Grove Inc., which
recruits and supports Viners and other online
creators.
Vine changed Ikura’s life in a personal way,
too. Oozeki is now his girlfriend. He says they
complement each other well because Oozeki is
inspired and creative, while he is more organized
and analytical.
Hayatto Noguchi, with about 23,000 followers
and 16 million loops or views on Vine, is
hoping to leverage Vine as a springboard for his
livelihood.
Noguchi uses animation as well as the
stop-motion technique of manipulating real-life
objects, frames at a time, to create the illusion of
movement.
In one, colorful origami-like buildings pop up
on a desk. In another, a likeness of Noguchi
appears on top of a cake to wish a happy birthday.
He has already been tapped by Intel Japan, Tic
Tac mints, and other companies to create Vine
videos, although the pay is relatively small at a
few hundred dollars per post.
It’s a tricky process to fine tune the looping and
craft an eye-catching concept. An overly polished
look can backfire because most people are tired of
the slickness of television ads and Hollywood
movies, he said.
Noguchi recently quit his job at a cellphone
company and is devoting himself full time to
Vine. He hasn’t told his parents about Vine,
dreaming of that day they’ll find out on their own.
But he has no illusions about how fleeting the
Vine craze might be, and shrugs that time might
be running out for him to become a
self-sustaining videographer.
“I think this year is it,” he said.
AP Photo/Peter Dejong
AP Photo/Christophe Ena
I
Asian Cycling championships. Less than a
month later, however, he went down in a
wreck in the final stage of the Tour of
Qatar, this time breaking his left femur.
But Arashiro kept his fitness up and
proved his health at the Tour of Japan four
months later, leading a breakaway at the
end of the seventh stage for his first stage
win since his 2013 victory. A month after
that, he raced in his seventh Tour de
France, once again displaying his grit and
sprinting ability.
In the sixth stage, Arashiro led a
breakaway after just three kilometers,
pulling away from the pack with one other
rider for 165 kilometers. They built a lead
of more than five minutes before the
peloton overtook them. For his aggressive
riding, Arashiro won the red jersey for the
second time at the Tour de France. He said
later, “I’m pleased that I received the
award as most combative rider, it’s a prize
for the determination I had to promote the
breakaway … Today I add another
beautiful moment.”
In the end, Arashiro was unable to keep
up the pace he’d maintained in earlier
Tours, but considering his injury in
February, his performance was nonethe-
less impressive. After slipping back to
140th place in the middle stages, Arashiro
improved down the stretch to finish in
116th place. Next season, if he can stay
healthy, look for Arashiro to set even more
Asian records on the international cycling
scene.
Giant panda Xiao Liwu
celebrates fourth birthday
Xiao Liwu, a male giant panda at the San
Diego Zoo, turned four years old last month.
The panda, whose name means little gift,
received a birthday party complete with ice
cake — flavored with strawberry-kiwi and
fruit-punch drink mix, puréed yams, carrots,
apples, and honey — and presents. The
apples and bamboo sticks on top of his cake
resembled candles.
Xiao Liwu’s exhibit was also filled with
decorated gift boxes that were painted and
embellished by a team of San Diego Zoo
volunteers. Keepers filled the boxes with
enrichment items, including wood wool,
alfalfa, and burlap sacks covered in cinnamon
— and some boxes just filled with more boxes.
The birthday bear, called Mr. Wu by his
keepers and panda fans, added blue and
green colors to his iconic black-and-white
markings.
The San Diego Zoo is home to three giant
pandas: Xiao Liwu, his mother Bai Yun, and
his father Gao Gao. Xiao Liwu is the sixth cub
born to Bai Yun and the fifth cub fathered by
Gao Gao. The giant pandas are on loan to the
San Diego Zoo from the People’s Republic of
China for conservation studies of the
endangered species.
To learn more, visit <http://zoo.san
diegozoo.org/cams/panda-cam>.
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