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Tour of Japan

Tour of Japan
Date May
Region Japan
Local name(s) ツアー・オブ・ジャパン (Japanese)
Discipline Road
Competition UCI Asia Tour 2.1
Type Stage race
First edition 1996 (1996)
Editions 19 (as of 2016)
First winner  Jean-Philippe Duracka (FRA)
Most wins  Fortunato Baliani (ITA)
 Samad Pourseyedi (IRI) (2 wins)
Most recent  Óscar Pujol (ESP)

The Tour of Japan is an annual professional road bicycle racing stage race held in Japan since 1996 as part of the UCI Asia Tour. It is sanctioned by the International Cycling Union (UCI) as a 2.1 category race.

Tour of Japan was formed as the successor of the Kokusai Cycle Road Race which began in 1982. In 1996, Tour of Japan has begun as a UCI category 2-5 stage race, and became category 2-4 in 1997. It was downgraded to category 2-5 in 2002.

As the UCI race system was reformed in 2005, it was included in UCI Asia Tour as a category 2.2 event. It became category 2.1 since 2013.

The event for 2003 was canceled for concern of SARS outbreak in China, and for 2011 was canceled for earthquake in Tohoku, Japan.



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