Great news for Japanese cycling

Former national road race champion Yukira Arashiro has been signed by French team bouygues Telecom, which is great news because Bouygues will field a team in next year's Tour de France - and Arashiro is a "rouler" - the type of rider made for stage racing, long breakaways and rolling terrain.

The rider has certainly put in years of hard work, riding for the Vang team before getting picked up by Dutch/Japanese team Skil-Shimano.

But now he's in the big league riding the big races - perhaps Paris-Nice, Route du Sud, Paris Roubaix and Liege-Bastogne-Liege. The races you can see on TV - races young kids in Japan can watch on J-Sports. I hope Arashiro scores a few wins so we see more kids go get on a bike.