The thing with Yowamushi Pedal is, you always knew it was going to get there.  We had a lot of wasted time along the way, no question about it.  But I guess that’s just the price of admission with this series, especially with the original third-years having faded into the background.  When the action gets spread around to the secondary characters the level drops, because those secondary characters just aren’t as interesting as they were.  But once the camera is back on the boys that matter, it’s old home week.  That’s where we are now, and where we’ve been for a while.

They don’t matter any more than Sakamichi of course (I love that Akira calls him by his first name).  Imaizumi can pretend otherwise, but the truth is not hard to discern.  Onoda has to survive that scare we saw at the end of last week’s episode, and generally speaking he has plenty of reasons not to especially like cycling in the rain.  But he knows that his teammate is (selfishly) out front duking it out with Midousuji, in conditions that are exhausting even if you aren’t riding at 100%.  The few kilometers (almost all uphill) that remain are an eternity, and set with an important task, Onoda pretty much always gets the job done.

Chimera-kun and Hotshot are indeed beating the crap out of other, which really means that both of them are kind of foolish.  We don’t see Midousuji get caught up in the heat of the moment too often but I really think that’s what happens here.  Again, he seems to have an especial distaste for Imaizumi as the sort of rider antithetical to his own outlaw approach to the sport.  Sakamichi he respects, as much as Midousuji respects anybody – “not a mass-produced model” is as effusive a compliment as you’re ever going to get from Midousuji Akira.  Imaizumi, not so much.

Initially, that giant puddle at the bottom of the descent seems like a break for Akira, especially when he goads Imaizumi into plowing into it at full-speed while he chooses a route and heads for the tiny strip of pavement at the edge of the road.  But Midousuji has limits, and more than anyone else on the top three teams he basically rides alone.  His lieutenants are important in his various schemes, but they offer him almost none of the traditional support (pulling, pace-setting, corralling enemy attacks) a team’s ace usually receives in a grand tour.  If this freak of nature has a weakness, it’s his inability to rely on others and to accept his own limitations.

I feel really bad for him, as shady a competitor as he often is.  I think we can all agree that nobody wants to win more than Midousuji does.  There’s a purity to his single-mindedness that makes it almost admirable.  Once more he collapses about 3 KM from the finish line (he makes it a hundred meters closer this time).  All of those machinations, all that scheming and effort, and it all comes to naught.  Onoda is a decent enough soul to feel bad about what he sees, horrified even – he respects Akira too.  In fact, he even reflexively starts to brake out of concern – but he catches himself and pushes on.  Another year gone for Chimera-kun, and another year to make himself crazy thinking of ways to fix it next time.

So what now?  Let’s step back and look at how we got here.  Akira and Shunsuke were literally giving it everything they had, desperately trying to gain an advantage.  All the while Sakamichi is struggling with slick roads, drifting through corners, walking his bike through the puddle.  But once the final ascent starts, he reels Imaizumi in quickly.  As Imaizumi himself says, his legs are “shot”.  Onoda’s presumably are not, and he’s the best climber on the team (and maybe in the race).  Objectively speaking, there’s no way Imaizumi could beat Onoda to the finish from here.  For all the noble talk of crossing the line together, someone has to win.  Does the “ace” expect Onoda to step aside and let it be him?

That’s almost surely going to be a moot point, though.  Hakone Gakuen has been invisible, letting the other two podium contenders trade punches.  But Manami is going to be there at the end – he was always going to be there at the end.  When the time comes to launch him Kuroda will do just that, sacrificing himself in the process – because that’s how this works.  The team gives everything it has to set its best rider up for the final charge to the wire.  This is the “fate” that the fallen Midousuji refers to, surely.  And while Onoda and Imaizumi are happily dreaming of a paired finish HakoGaku will be clawing them back.  Once Manami has caught up Sohoku won’t have the luxury to worry about Imaizumi’s pride – they’ll have to try and stop him.  And Onoda will be the only one with a chance to do it.