Warning!! Proceed with caution!!
Part of the following is not yet in the anime. If you're not reading the manga, be careful.
The Qualifiers is a yearly race where the cycling clubs of many high schools from their respective prefectures compete in order to classify themselves to the Inter High. You can read more general information about the event on the Inter High Qualifiers.
The qualifiers for the Chiba prefecture was held in the Kamogawa City and took place during the third year from the main storyline events, at 10am.
Known Participants[]
Ace • Ace Assistant • Sprinter • Climber • All-Rounder • Unknown
Participants | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Sohoku High School | ||||
#𝟙𝟘𝟙 | #𝟙𝟘𝟚 | #𝟙𝟘𝟛 | #𝟙𝟘𝟜 | #𝟙𝟘𝟝 |
Kashiwa Higashi High School | ||||
Kamogawa High School | ||||
Summary[]
The Sohoku team arrives at the local that the race will be held. While the third years are preparing themselves, the other teams' members are looking at them cautious, as they are going to race against the team known for winning the Inter High two times in a row. The first years from Sohoku are also worried about it, desperate to do their best to help them. Tsugunao Kinaka talks with Renta Rokudai to watch them and tells him that one day they will also race on that same stage aiming for the victory while wearing the team's jersey.
Shortly after, the second year Issa Kaburagi approaches them and tells them that they will also participate of the race along with the third years as the captain Sakamichi Onoda asked the second and third years to preserve themselves for the Inter High. Both Tsugunao and Renta get surprised and started to practice on the rollers along with the third years. They give the first years cheering words and Renta asks why he was chosen since he had no real cycling experience and was previously a manager in middle school. The third year Shunsuke Imaizumi explains that in the race there are other things than riding, which are thinking of strategies and refill their calories with the supplies and that Kyotaro Amigoe and Keisuke Hinoki, former members of the club and also former teammates of Renta in middle school, told him about his quick abilities as a supporter when he was a manager.
While Renta and Tsugunao are worried preparing themselves, the Sohoku's manager Miki Kanzaki approaches and gives them their jerseys with the number tags. They wear the jerseys with determination to aid his seniors in the race. In other place, Sakamichi, Shunsuke and Shoukichi Naruko arrives at the starting line and are well received by the spectators, who are cheering for him. Shoukichi, replies them excited while Sakamichi and Shunsuke talks about the race and their memories about watching their former seniors during their first year in the 41st Inter High's Qualifiers. As the other cyclists arrives at the starting line, the Sohoku's third years about doing the same, they are ready to race with everything they have got.
The race starts and after a short parade at the beginning, Shoukichi attacks and goes by himself to the goal line. At first, some cyclists get worried about it, but the Kashiwa Higashi's third year Masafumi Nomura tells them that he will eventually exhaust himself for riding alone. Sakamichi and Shunsuke talk about the advantage they will get for Shoukichi going ahead and are worried about the first years who did not start with them. Shunsuke suggests that they leave them behind and states that this race will also serve as a test to select the regular team's members and that if they can not reach them, then they will not need them.
Behind the pack of cyclists, Tsugunao and Renta are worried about catching up with their seniors and they try to get to the front by asking the other cyclists to let them pass, but they fail to do it. Renta is confused about how the road racing competitions work as he is on his first race and he asks Tsugunao if it works on the same way as the basketball which you need to win three to four matches in order to classify. Tsugunao tells them that only this race will decide who will classify to the Inter High. Renta is desperate for not managing to get across the pack of cyclists and for not attending for the seniors trust on him the role of giving them the bag of supplies, so Tsugunao goes after him and lifts his jersey, telling him that the only thing he can do at the moment is pedal. Tsugunao sees the road getting wider on this stage of the race and warns Renta, so the two first years start to ride on the edge of the road and begin to pass all the pack of cyclists.
At the front, Sakamichi and Shunsuke are starting to feel the consequences of the high temperature and are sweating a lot. They notice some cyclists retiring due to the lack of supplies and talk about retiring in case the first years do not arrive with the supplies from everyone. The pack of cyclists notice the Sohoku's first years passing through them and going to the front. They manage to arrive at the front of the pack thinking they finally would meet their seniors, but they were not there. Tsugunao quickly notices and get surprised, but Renta did not notice at first and attempts to give them the supplies before Tsugunao makes him notice. Tsugunao gets worried as they enter the mountain stage of the race and his skills do not work there, but he reminds of Renta being a climber and ask him to ride at the front instead of him. Despite his strange responses, Renta agrees and start to pull his teammate towards their objective. While pulling, Renta keeping doing strange replies and reactions, but keeps riding at a fast pacing which surprises Tsugunao. As Renta was still with the jersey on top of his head after his teammated pulled it and was acting strangely since this, Tsugunao decides to name it as "Beast Mode".
Sakamichi and Shunsuke are riding with the small packs at the front and are struggling due to heat. The Kamogawa's cyclist Ryouzou Honda notices their struggle and advances by himself to the goal, looking for the victory. He catches up with Shoukichi and quickly gets ahead of him, surprising the Sohoku's cyclist who is reaching his limit. Before advacing, Ryouzou stops and mocks Shoukichi about him not having another water bottle and tells his opponent he is used to this kind of situation since he is riding at his hometown.
The crowd is surprised at how Sohoku is not moving, even Masafumi from Kashiwa Higashi asks Shunsuke why they are not moving forward. Shunsuke explains it is due to the heat and says he is waiting for the supplies and Masafumi thinks of how he is acting strangely and tells him to go to the supply area at the front. Shunsuke tells him that the supplies are coming from the first years behind them and Masafumi tells him that they are not used to the high school races and there is no way they can reach them. Sakamichi disagrees with Msafumi and thinks that they will come and that they are aware of how important are their roles.
Shortly after, both Renta and Tsugunao catch up with them and deliver their supplies. The third year compliments their juniors for their feat and Tsugunao removes Renta's jersey off his head after his confusing replies to Sakamichi in his "Beast Mode" and the first year returns to normal. The third years replenish themselves with the supplies and prepare themselves to go at full power after the people on the front. The first years wave them in order to wish them good luck, but Shunsuke tells them to follow them. They got confused at first and tried to refuse it by saying they are tired after pursuing them, but after hearing Sakamichi's request to go after them and see the Sohoku's overwhelming victory, they follow his seniors. Some cyclists try to keep up with them, but they fail to.
At the front, Ryouzou is excited for being close to the goal and listens all his cheers for him until one of them tells him to not give up. He gets confused, as if the spectator meant someone was chasing him and he was about to lose and then he starts to get afraid after noticing the meaning of these words. Shortly after, all the five members of Sohoku catch up with him, even Shoukichi who was tired and just replenished himself with the supplies. Ryouzou attemps to attack towards the goal, but he is easily surpassed by all the Sohoku members and is left behind.
People started to cheer for Sohoku and Renta gets surprised by it, which is noticed by Shoukichi who explains to him that it is the same at the Inter High. Shunsuke mocks him for his ability of using the crowd to give himself strength and Shoukichi talks back at his teammate. Shortly after, they prepare themselves to race seriously against each other towards the goal, surprising even more Renta and exciting Tsugunao. As the two of them race towards the goal, Sakamichi tells Renta to look at them and that winning in a road racing is something special, specially for the two of them.
Shunsuke overcomes Shoukichi at first, but moments before the goal Shoukichi does a final attack at full power and gets ahead of Shunsuke, winning the race overall. As the rest of the team crosses the goal, Renta gets amazed at how incredible the Sohoku team is.