Video & Results: 2014 Japan Cyclocross National Championships – Racing on a Tough, Snowy Motocross Course

Sportsland SUGO in the town of Murata in the Miyagi Prefecture, Japan is no stranger to high-profile sporting events, having hosted Motocross World Championships and Superbike World Championships, along with annual Super GT and Super Formula car races. Two weeks ago the top cyclocrossers in Japan convened on the venue to battle for a human-powered title in the form of the 2014 Cyclocross National Championships. In years past, Japan and the US would often share the same weekend for their National Championships before USA Cycling moved its championships to January.

This year, with the championships held up north in the Miyagi Prefecture (where the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami struck in 2011), Mother Nature cooperated with some snow and mud on a very challenging track. The course used much of the motorcross track’s terrain, and with its giant run-up, a Azencross-like pump track, and sticky mud, delivered up a championship race and course worthy of world-class racing and rivaling European courses in difficulty. (Besides the giant run-ups, the course also looked like a ton of fun.)

At the end of the day, some familiar faces were back in National Championship jerseys, with Yu Takenouchi, fourth at both days of Nobeyama 2014, defending his 2013 title, and seven-time champion Ayako Toyooka, runner-up both days in Nobeyama, reclaiming her National Championship title she lost in 2012 to Sakiko Miyauchi (See Miyauchi’s unique carbon Author cyclocross bike profile here).

With her seventh title after a two-year hiatus, Toyooka was in tears of joy at the finish.

Perhaps the most impressive ride of the day? Ageless Masanori Kosaka, at 51, finishing third, five spots ahead of his 26-year-old son Hikaru.

In the Junior Men’s race, Ryo Takeuchi took the title, with the U23 race was won by Kota Yokoyama.

See the video and full UCI results below:

2014 Japan Cyclocross National Championship Video by Pigmon:

Rank	Name	Nat.	Age*	Result	Points
1	Yu TAKENOUCHI	JPN	26	59:15:00	100
2	Motoshi KADOTA	JPN	38	1:00:46	60
3	Masanori KOSAKA	JPN	51	1:01:18	40
4	Yoshitaka HAMA	JPN	30	1:03:31	30
5	Kazuhiro YAMAMOTO	JPN	32	1:03:53	25
6	Seigo YAMAMOTO	JPN	31	1:03:58	20
7	Masayuki GODA	JPN	40	1:04:26	15
8	Hikaru KOSAKA	JPN	26		10
9	Shintarou NAKAMA	JPN	34		5
10	Syuntarou YAMAKAWA	JPN	32		3
11	Toshio KUNII	JPN	37
12	Shinya IKEMOTO	JPN	36
13	Tomohiro SAITO	JPN	37
14	Toshihide SATO	JPN	32
15	Atsushi MARUYAMA	JPN	36
16	Kouji MUKOUYAMA	JPN	36
17	Kazushi MIKAMI	JPN	42
18	Daisuke YANO	JPN	42
19	Hiroaki KANEKO	JPN	30
20	Ryoji NEMOTO	JPN	32
21	Masato SAMATA	JPN	38
22	Katsuhisa BABA	JPN	37
23	Makoto KAWAMURA	JPN	26
24	Kenji YOGO	JPN	46
25	Kenichi IL	JPN	47
26	Takashi MAKINO	JPN	41
27	Tomova HACHISUKA	JPN	38
28	Yoshinori SUZUKI	JPN	27
29	Masanori KUNIYOSHI	JPN	42
30	Yukihiro DOI	JPN	31
31	Ryutaro NAKAMURA	JPN	24
32	Akio SOGA	JPN	43
33	Nobuhiko TANABE	JPN	31
34	Natsuki YAMADA	JPN	46
35	Maeda NAO	JPN	34
36	Satoru KUCHIKI	JPN	38
37	Shuhei YANAI	JPN	27
38	Isamu OKURA	JPN	22
39	Yuya MURAYAMA	JPN	22
40	Yuichi SAWADA	JPN	45
41	Manabu NEMOTO	JPN	36
42	Yuki OCHIAI	JPN	31
43	Hirohide KUBOTA	JPN	33
44	Yasumasa SAWADA	JPN	49
45	Wataru SHIBATA	JPN	35
46	Jin KANAI	JPN	40
47	Yoshiniro OGAWA	JPN	41
48	Shinji IWANAMI	JPN	43
49	Hirohiko ITO	JPN	43
50	Kenji MURATA	JPN	31
51	Katsunori TOYODA	JPN	26
52	Teisuke MORIMOTO	JPN	40
53	Satoshi INAGAKI	JPN	29

Rank	Name	Nat.	Age*	Result	Points
1	Ayako TOYOOKA	JPN	34	41:02:00	100
2	Sakiko MIYAUCHI	JPN	39	41:37:00	60
3	Waka TAKEDA	JPN	22	46:11:00	40
4	Michiko KAWASAKI	JPN	36	47:40:00	30
5	Mikako SUZUKI	JPN	40	52:06:00	25
6	Mutsumi SUDOU	JPN	45		20
7	Yukie HAYASHIGUCHI	JPN	41		15
8	Mihoko MORI	JPN	42		10
9	Michiho WATANUKI	JPN	43		5
10	Chihiro ITO	JPN	31		3

Rank	Name	Nat.	Age*	Result	Points
1	Ryo TAKEUCHI	JPN	17	37:06:00	30
2	Masaki YAMADA	JPN	17	38:39:00	20
3	Tatsuyoshi HINO	JPN	16	39:51:00	15
4	Hijiri ODA	JPN	16	41:15:00	12
5	Takumi FUJITA	JPN	17	44:26:00	10
6	Takuma SAITO	JPN	17	45:06:00	8
7	Takehiro ABE	JPN	17		6