Road cycling is set to be the latest sport to feature in the “Ready Steady Tokyo” test event series for next year’s Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Teams from Hong Kong, Belgium, France, Germany, Britain, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg and Russia will compete alongside 11 Japanese International Cycling Union Continental teams.
It will feature male cyclists only and will be a one-day event.
The race will take place tomorrow, starting from Musashinonomori Park in Tokyo and ending at Fuji International Speedway in Shizuoka Prefecture.
It is the same 234 kilometres course that will be used at Tokyo 2020, with athletes taking on the lower slopes of Mount Fuji as part of the race.
“The Olympic and Paralympic cycling courses will be quite challenging, traversing rugged up-and down terrain near Mount Fuji,” said Tokyo 2020 chief executive Toshiro Muto when the course was unveiled last October.
“The spectacle of the world’s top athletes battling it out on these courses is bound to excite audiences.”
There are 56 test events involved in “Ready Steady Tokyo” which are due to take place until May 2020.
Some are scheduled domestic and international sporting events that happen to be taking place in Japan during the build-up to Tokyo 2020, while 22 are dedicated Olympic and Paralympic test events.
Weightlifting, archery and surfing events have already taken place this month.
