Hi All

I have just returned from the Tour of Japan. I was looking at doing well in this tour as Cameron won the tour overall last year. I started the tour off well with 6th in the first stage which was a very rainy criterium. My team mate Leigh Howard had an exceptional ride by getting in a 4 man break and attacking the break to win solo. I backed up well by finishing 5th the following day in the first road stage. I felt pretty good and I was sitting in a pretty good position of 5th on GC.

Stage 3 I felt strong and I was part of a group of 7 GC contenders over the final climb. However it all came back together and my team mates Jack Bobridge and Adam Semple did a great job by delivering Leigh Howard to his second stage win. Another team mate of mine, Michael Matthews, and myself were sitting in a good position of 4th and 5th overall. 

Stage 4 was a tough stage which consisted of a 2.5km climb every lap over the 12km circuit which we covered 12 times. My team mate Jack Bobridge skipped off the front with an Amica Chips – Knauf rider which got a max of 5mins and 30 seconds lead over the peleton. Two other riders managed to jump across after the gap was reduced to 1 minute and 30 seconds. So the front group became 4 which stayed away to the finish. Jack did an excellent job and won the sprint comfortably for stage win number 3 for Team AIS. 

Now stage 5. 11.4km Mount Fuji Time Trial. An average of 10.4%. That means some serious hurt box! I went alright up the mountain but not really good enough and finished a long way down. So this ruined my chance of following in Cameron’s footsteps. Disappointing but I am still happy with my rides so far. 

Stage 6 was around a very tough circuit. I was off the front solo for the first 2 laps out of 12. It was a very hard course to go solo so I just rode tempo and a group of 3 came across to me. On lap 3 my gears slipped really bad and I managed to crash which made me chase for a lap. It was good to get some help from Leigh to get back on and it kept my legs fresh enough to stay with the front group until the finish. So thanks for that Leigh! Jack managed to get off the front again and win the stage, out sprinting the Kazak rider.

Stage 7 was a Kermese around Tokyo in the rain. Hows that? It rains for the first stage criterium, dry and hot for all the other stages, and then rains for the last stage kermese! Unlucky! Jack was in the break which got brought back pretty early. With two laps to go our team controlled the front. With a lap to go a rider attacked with approximately 6km to go. I got on the front with about 5.5km to go and took the team until about 2km to go. I felt really strong and that is the first lead out I have been involved in. Jack got on the front with 2km to go and took glenn up until 500m to go, then Leigh stepped off to win the stage. So a great lead out by the boys to make it 5 stage wins out of 7 for the tour.

All in all it was a great tour and a successful tour for the team. On a personal note I was relatively happy with how I was going. It would have been great to get a result but I put in 100% and helped out the team when I could and needed to.

I am currently in Girona with Cam for a few days to catch up and have a look around. It is great here and it inspires me to become a professional very soon.  

I have two 1 day races coming up on Sunday and Tuesday in Italy which I can hopefully do well at. I will keep you ll posted!

Until next time.

Travis

 A wet stage 1 with me in second wheel behind team mate Jack Bobridge and Michael Matthews in thrid wheel