For a group of international winter entrepreneurs who became “off -season” cycling buddies, Niseko’s winding roads, hard climbs and alpine scenery looked like the raw material for a serious road-racing destination – a Hokkaido slice of the Tour de France.
The idea “snowballed”. Local summer activity and adventure pioneer Ross Findlay launched the Hanazono Hill Climb as a litmus test in 2009, before the inaugural Niseko Classic road race came to being in 2014.