A luxurious meal is never quite good enough being a one or two course meal, it requires that third course, the cherry on top. The Tour of Japan offered the starters and is on course to providing a more than scrumptious main course in the coming days, the dessert to complete this Far Eastern meal odyssey is the Tour de Kumano. This young, 4 year old race has already got a fairly decent record of producing quality winners with Miyataka Shimizu, Valentin Iglinskiy, Mizourov and Fortunato Baliani stepping on the top step of the podium so far. Who'll be the winner this time around? Will Jono go for an even more mental 90km solo? All these questions will be answered come the 31st of May, when Kumano unravels itself again from its holiness, to the world of bike racing.

If I've indeed got the right Kumano in the right province and the right country, then- The Kumano area is located around the southern tip of the Kii Peninsula, about 100 kilometers south of Osaka. It spans Wakayama and Mie Prefectures, though most of the attractions and religious sites are in Wakayama.

Kumano is centered around three shrines, Hongu Taisha, Nachi Taisha and Hayatama Taisha, collectively known as the Kumano Sanzan. Pilgrims have traveled to the Kumano Sanzan via walking trails, called Kumano Kodo, for over 1000 years. The shrines are even older, with mention in Japan's founding mythology.

Hongu Taisha-



Nachi Taisha-


Not a half bad image of the pagoda of Seigantoji and Nachi no Taki waterfall


And the waterfall itself-


Hayatama Taisha-


The race starts with a short prologue in Shingu, the town and not the anime series, just south west of Kumano-


Then on the Akiga-gawa river, I think, may be as wrong as usual here-


Then what appears to be the most important stage in determining the GC of the Tour de Kumano with a plethora of other climbs


Before heading off to the Taiji Peninsula for the final stage of the 2012 Tour de Kumano


Where will you be after the giddy highs of the Tour of Japan? The Tour de Kumano demands your audience.
Any info regarding Japan's tourism is thanks to my stupendous knowledge japan-guide.

Expect to see Tabriz drop off that list very soon

Slightly disappointing team list. strong Japanese teams but not the hottest foreign line up.
Could be because of the overlap with Singkarak. although Indonesian race starts one day later no way to travel from one to the other in time, so has split the foreign teams between the two.

am sure it will still be a cracking race

Expect to see Tabriz drop off that list very soon

Slightly disappointing team list. strong Japanese teams but not the hottest foreign line up.
Could be because of the overlap with Singkarak. although Indonesian race starts one day later no way to travel from one to the other in time, so has split the foreign teams between the two.

am sure it will still be a cracking race

Haven't Tabriz already pulled out? They did from the Tour of Japan. As for the race itself, Singkarak definitely appears a bit more challenging than this one, and must have drawn most Asian teams there. It has been quite a busy season recently considering the size of most of the Asian teams. As long as it doesn't turn out like last year's Jelajah Malaysia, as Jono described, it should be good.

Extremely short prologue starts at 3:35 pm local time.

1st road stage at 11:30 am

2nd road stage parade (or neutral zone, I'd think) starts at 10:10am and the official start is 10:30am

Final stage starts at 11:10am

All times are local time.

After tour of Japan think we can assume that course will be harder than we expect

seems like these circuit races are ridden hard

Startlist and basic intro-











Not sure about Giacoppo riding this event, he pulled out of the Tour of Japan with tonsillitis

Rice list?

Did I hear that there was a lack of information? Seems that info's only visible when opened in a new tab

Prologue



Stage 1


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Stage 2


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Stage 3


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Stage start times (all Local time Japan, +9 GMT, not BST)

Prologue starts at a fairly leisurely 3:35pm local time.

1st road stage starts at 11:30am

2nd road stage starts at 10:30am

Last stage starts 10:10am

Stage start times (all Local time Japan, +9 GMT, not BST)

Prologue starts at a fairly leisurely 3:35pm local time.

1st road stage starts at 11:30am

2nd road stage starts at 10:30am

Last stage starts 10:10am

Hard times to view as a western european.. Maybe I'll tune in should I miraculously wake up in time and having spare time at that moment ;D

Does anyone know if there'll be VoDs? Would be nice to see the scenery on tape

Well, sweeet, there's a ustream video embedded on the official site. Now to hope for it to be for the live stream
http://www.nspk.net/tdk/

The ustream channel
http://www.ustream.tv/user/c-radio

Seems like he did a bit for Tour of Japan too

Nope, start times for the stages are further up. It's at 4:35pm in NSW.

Not very meaningful live pictures showing that the riders are out for a spin now, the race should start in half an hour. Also showing the time order now, but because it's hard to discern with a not highest quality internet stream.

As I write that, a couple of Canondale riders are off at a high pace for their warm up.

Giacoppo is riding and winning