They love their anime in Japan and they love their bike racing too, so it's surprising we haven't heard of more animated series about bikes. Yowamushi Pedal from Japanese film giant Toho looks promising though, as these trailers show.

According to Chris Beveridge on Fandom Post the story centres around Sakamichi Onoda, a rather timid, anime-loving first-year student at Sohoku High School, who regularly rides the 90km to Tokyo and back to meet other anime and manga fans.

In high school he meets Imaizumi Shunsuke, a renowned cyclist since middle school, and Naruko Shoukichi, who swept the Kansai cycling championship, and joins the school's bike racing club club. All kinds of trials and rigorous training await Onoda, but with the support of his many friends and upperclassmen, the talented road racer inside him begins to emerge.

The three trailers below for the Grande Road series promote the imminent second season, which will feature inter high school racing; the DVD and Bu-Ray release of the first season; and the new characters in the second.

We previously brought you news of Hill Climb Girl, featuring Bradley Wiggins as the inspiration for a young Japanese girl to beat a rival up the hill to her school, but this is the first cycling-centred anime series we've heard about.

We confess we know almost nothing about anime, so if there are any fans out there who can tell us if this is likely to appear with English subtitles, we'd love to hear from you.