Ten years ago, Raymond Kreder lined up for Garmin Sharp at the 97th Tour of Flanders, a race he finished 88th in, 13 minutes behind the winner, Fabian Cancellara.
A decade on, the Dutchman is still a professional rider, still pinning on his race numbers, clipping in and racing. However, he is unlikely to be a name on the lips of even the most anorakish of cycling fans, as he rides for a Japanese team, JCL Team UKYO.
For all of road cycling’s pretensions to being a global sport – there are WorldTour races in Australia, the Middle East and North America, and the 2024 World Championships will take place in Rwanda – it is still overpoweringly a European affair, with the biggest riders, the biggest events, still taking place within the strictures of the continent.
There are very few who attempt to buck that system, to go their own way, but Kreder is one, having made the switch from Dutch Pro Conti team Rompoot to UKYO back in 2018, embarking on an adventure into Asia Cup racing, something alien to most European cyclists.
“Six years ago my management asked me if I wanted to try one year in Asia, on a Japanese team,” the 33-year-old told Cycling Weekly at the Saudi Tour. “I talked to my wife about it, and we thought ‘why not?’. After the first year I liked it so much that I stayed.”
It seems simple, does it not? If you don’t feel you fit in with the confines of the Eurocentric road scene, why not try something different. Not that Kreder has moved his whole life to Japan; he still lives in the Netherlands, but has replaced the rhythms of the European calendar – the Classics, the stage races, the Grand Tours – with that of the Asia Cup.
“I live in Europe, at home, between the races, and we do blocks of racing in Asia, between three and five weeks,” he explained. “Three or four times in one season I’m away for a while.”
(Image credit: Saudi Tour/Pauline Ballet/Charly Lopez)
It is a similar story for Jesse Ewart, the Irish-Australian rider on Terengganu Polygon Cycling Team, a Malaysian squad which he joined this year.
“When I first went to Asia I was an under-23 rider,” he said. “I was racing in Italy with an amateur team at the time. In comparison, riding in Asia it was really fun and exciting compared to that. It was a lot more enjoyable at the time, I also had a couple of other mates who were doing it at the time. That’s how I ended up here.”
Ewart was originally with another Malaysian team, Sapura, but made the switch to Terengganu in the off-season: “I’ve had very…