Asian racing, a springboard for Jon Aberasturi to bounce back

Asian racing, a springboard for Jon  Aberasturi to bounce back

With eight victories this year in category  1 and HC races, stage 1 winner of the 12^th Tour of Hainan Jon  Aberasturi is Spain’s second scorer of the year behind Alejandro Valverde who  collected eleven. He’s ready to return to Europe with Euskadi Basque  Country/Murias after two years of racing successfully in Asia.

Is  the Asia Tour the way for lost WorldTour riders to bounce back? While his  Australian team-mate Nathan Earle, formerly with Team Sky, has inked a deal with  Giro d’Italia wild-card applicants Israel Cycling Academy, the ex-Euskaltel  rider will race for Euskadi Basque Country/Murias with the hope of a Vuelta a  Espa?a start for next year. The 28 year old has eight victories under his belt  in 2017, all of them conquered in Asia: Thailand, Korea, Japan and China. From  Spain, only Valverde has done better this year.

“We  can’t compare Valverde and myself”, Aberasturi declared at the start of stage 2  in the Tour of Hainan in Wanning-Xinglong. “He won eleven races although he rode  only half of a season. He was winning everything [from the Vuelta a Murcia to  Liège-Bastogne-Liège before crashing in the opening time trial of the Tour de  France], he was having his best year ever. I have eight wins. I also have 30  podiums, I’m the second Spaniard behind Alberto Contador who’s got 32. At the  end, those are just numbers but they give me the confidence I didn’t have  before.”

Aberasturi’s world collapsed when the  Euskaltel team folded four years ago. “I had dedicated my life to being a  Euskaltel rider, having raced for two years in their amateur team Naturgas and  three years in their continental team Orbea”, he recalled. “I was on a two-year  contract with the WorldTour team when we were told in the middle of 2013 that it  would be hard for the team to continue. For the 35 year olds in the team, it was  regrettable but for us who hoped to have a future in this team, it was  terrible.”

“I’ve considered quitting cycling”, he  continued. “I went to Mexico. I got an offer from the 7-Eleven team from the  Philippines but the conditions weren’t good.   I’ve trained without racing for a year and I eventually got an  opportunity with Ukyo in Japan. Honestly, I didn’t know who Ukyo Katayama was [a  Japanese Formula 1 pilot from 1992 to 1997 turned into cyclist and cycling team  owner]. I hope he’ll manage to build the first Japanese Pro Continental team as  he wishes within two years from now. He also runs a Formula GT300 car racing  team. He can’t come to all the races we do but he was our sport director at the  Tour of Lombok [won by Earle in Indonesia]. He brings us his  humility.”

Aged 28, Aberasturi considers it’s the  right time for him to bounce back in Europe after two years on the Asia Tour.  “The Murias project offers a new horizon”, he said. “With a good image and good  results, we hope to get more support from Basque companies. The potential of  great cyclists in our region remains big.”