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Rui Costa (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty) took victory within the rain on the Japan Cup, beating his break companions in a three-way dash to take his fifth win in a resurgent season.
Felix Engelhardt (Jayco-AlUla) took second, his problem fading within the closing metres, whereas Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) was gapped within the last cost and took third place.
“Profitable this Japan Cup has a particular which means for me,” mentioned Costa. “I began the season by profitable my first race within the Mallorca Problem in January and at the moment I took the win in my final race in Japan.
“Similar to then, it was a really laborious day due to the chilly and the continuing rain from begin to end.”
The 1.Professional race was anticipated to play out over 16 laps of the Utsunomiya circuit, with its climb of Mt Kogashi, for a complete distance of 164.8km. Nonetheless, earlier than the race began organisers introduced that because of dangerous climate it will be lower to 13 laps for a complete of 133.9km.
With the shortened distance, it was aggressive racing from the beginning and by the previous few laps a gaggle of round 15 had made its approach up the highway. The race, with its stable climb and technical and moist descent, nonetheless, cut up up additional as the ultimate laps approached.
Costa was out the entrance alone to assert the final mountain factors on the twelfth lap, however he was later joined by Martin and Engelhardt, with the trio coming into the ultimate lap collectively.
“Within the final kilometre I attempted to go early, however I didn’t fairly have the legs anymore and I blew up within the final 75 metres,” mentioned second-placed Engelhardt. “However I’m actually pleased with the consequence and it’s nice to get a consequence once more after struggling a bit on the Vuelta.”
The race additionally included a 37.5km criterium on Saturday, which was gained by Edward Theuns (Lidl-Trek) with Riley Sheehan (Israel-Premier Tech) coming second and Axel Zingle (Cofidis) third. Maxim Van Gils (Lotto-Dstny), who came visiting the road tenth, was penalised by the UCI after being caught on digicam delivering a headslap to a rider extensively recognized as Greek racer Giorgios Bouglas simply as the 2 have been crossing the road.
Van Gils ended up coming fourth within the highway race, crossing the road solo 27 seconds again from race winner Costa and greater than a minute forward of Costa’s fifth-placed teammate Georg Zimmerman. The Japan Cup, together with the Veneto Traditional late on Sunday, brings the ProSeries racing for 2023 to an in depth.
Outcomes
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