Well accustomed to ending the season, its up to the Japan Cup to close off the continental division this year. Plenty of favourites and potential for ranking changes - just 24 points separating 4th and 6th, for example (Thats Pendletons, Bacardi and Milka).
A break of 11 gets away: Mach, Doi, Jarc, Weiss, Saldarriaga, Semple, Scholz, Barrio, Teklehaimanot and Brolin
Local rider Beppu tried to get away aswell, with Cleaver, Grippo and El Fares. No luck with an early display of force from Pendletons
Arkaitz Duran will bridge to the break though and make it 12.
Inside 100km to go, the break's lead is still less than 2 minutes. So theres more attempts to bridge - easier said than done when the up and down nature of the circuit often halts attacks in their tracks. Bernucci of Pirelli goes away from the peloton
Scheirlinckx - the Dutch Food Valley Classic winner, and Rovira also go clear. As does Chris Froome! A surprisingly early move from the 100% Me team captain, and GP of Wales winner - where he beat many of the top riders also in the race today, who are instead choosing the perhaps more sensible option of waiting to attack closer to the finish. Anyway, Froome, Bernucci and the other 2 increase the breakaway size to 16
Its what the group needed and by 80km to go the gap is up to 3 minutes - and more attacks from the peloton. First Samwel, Ljungblad and Paulinho then Nocentini, Siutsou, Proni and Carrara.
But with Froome and co helping to power the break now, its a tough ask for these 7 to get across. With 70km to go they are still 1'40 back - albeit a good 3 and a half minutes ahead of the peloton.
Konovalovas attacks off on his own from the peloton, but UBS and Bacardi are starting to get organised
He is caught again with 56km to go though, as the gap from the peloton to the front group is 5 minutes. Still the 7 chasers are doing their upmost to get across.
Didac Ortega is on the front of the peloton for Santander. If they promote now, they can credit his 4th overall in the recent Sun Tour as a huge factor. But here he and the rest of the relayers in the peloton are struggling. The gap at 56km to go was 5 minutes. 11km later, and only 15 more seconds have been knocked off
Vespa's less than great season then continues, as Bosisio punctures
With 33km to go the team leaders are starting to get worried. Still they trail by 3'50 to the front group - while those 7 chasers are now only 40 seconds away after their long chase to the front. It suggests that it might be hard to close gaps down here, and this is a big one to close down. Phillipe Gilbert has no choice but to attack
A descent prevents Sambris and Ponzi from following, but a couple of kilometres later, Gilbert finds some strong company in Ricco
And finally up front there is just the one group! It has taken those 7 riders - all of whom are strong in their own right - over 50km to get across what was initially a 3 minute gap. How far are Ricco and Gilbert behind with 27km now to go? 3 minutes!
Bacardi are evidently up for the chase as Kirchen also attacks, while the front group is not 23 men for very long. Having been part of that 7 man group, Kenyan Mwangi Samwel - the Chihuahua GC winner on loan from Vesuvio - is gapped from the front runners once again. He prefers climbs to be a fair amount steeper than this!
Martin, Gerrans, Moinard and Laverde Jiminez attack from the peloton. Gerrans, Pozzato, Sambris and Ponzi all joining in - but the leaders of these attacks, Ricco and Gilbert are still over 2 minutes down inside the last 20km
Into the final lap and some of the front group are attacking! Local Japanese rider Yukihiro Doi is leading them, with Duran going, and more dangerously, Proni
Crossing the line next to start the final 15km lap is Samwel at 1'20. Ricco and Gilbert are at 2'13. We then have Gerrans, Kirchen and Martin - with Sylvain Chavanel and others still trying to attack the peloton
Up front, Saldarriaga also got a slight gap with Doi, Proni and Duran - but Paulinho has brought them back.
10km to go, and Rovira is on the front. Its looking good for Pendletons as they hope to claim 4th in the Standings. Bacardi have nobody in this front group, and Milka only have Jarc.
Ricco and Gilbert have caught Samwel, and will now have their eye on Brolin, who was also dropped from the break. Even that is only 22nd place!
30 seconds behind Ricco and Gilbert, nd we have a 9 man group of Ponzi, Chavanel, Kirchen, Sambris, Gerrans, Craven, Calzati, Martin and Lalouette
7km to go and Yukihiro Doi attacks! The Japanese rider seems to have hit his limit here though, and it is Mach and Duran who get a small lead
With 4km left, Duran has fallen back leaving only the young American Paul Mach with a small gap on the rest of the front group
Still 2 minutes behind, Riccardo Ricco passes under 5km to go. At best he is racing for 22nd here though - and thats only 5 ranking points. He has dropped Gilbert though who is now back in the next group with Calazi, Ponzi, Chavanel, Sambris (Quiksilver's Moldovan on a great ride!), Gerrans, Samwel and Brolin
Prime opportunity for Milka now in the battle for 5th on the team standings with Bacardi. The Italian squad held a 1 point advantage on Milka, and with Kirchen now slipped back, and outside of the Top 30 ranking points scoring positions, Blaz Jarc need only come 19th out of a possible 21 positions to take the points Milka require!
Here is Calzati leading that group behind Ricco, with Kirchen in the distance leading another group of 7: Flugel, Craven, Ben Nasser, Hermans, Martin and Moinard also there.
3km to go, Mach has been caught, Siutsou leading the way. Paulinho, Bernucci, Froome and Nocentini following. Froome may be the best on the hills here, but in a sprint, it's tough to call
And it is disaster for Milka as the sprint begins! Jarc and Semple go down!! Semple bounces right back up, and even attacks - so it looks like 21st for Jarc. Unless Efimkin comes through from behind, Bacardi may now take 5th in the team standings by just 1 point!
Semple may have crashed, but the Red Bull manager probably wont care about that right now as Siutsou leads out the sprint for the win. Leading out didnt work for him in the Tour of America but this is different. Its a 4% climb to start with in this sprint, but the final couple hundred of metres are downhill - favouring the man at the front
Paulinho is best placed to challenge, with Nocentini, Bernucci and Froome all close, but having work to do
Siutsou now kicks again as the road heads on a 2% downhill slope
And Konstantin Siutsou wins the Japan Cup for Red Bull!!!
Nobody could have predicted that victory, as the long-haul attacks finally pay off when so often the favourites for this race chase them down and do battle as expected. Lorenzo Bernucci completes a strong season finish for Pirelli in taking 2nd, just ahead of Chris Froome - both having been on attack for 10km longer than Siutsou. Paulinho faded back to 5th as Nocentini takes 4th place
Wiggle are off to the ProTour, as are Pendleton's Twicer. Jaume Rovira's 6th place, ahead of Ljungblad and Carrara, securing 4th overall in the team standings
Proni can only manage 9th - perhaps dissapointing given the opportunities, but still more than he might have hoped for at the start. Scheirlinckx is 10th. Eritrean Daniel Teklehaimanot is 13th - making him one of the few people (Froome and Nocentini being 2 others) to score ranking points in both the first race of the season, and the last.
Home favourite Yukihiro Doi did his best to achieve a shock home victory, but its just 15th in the end as his attack failed - Mach and Duran also suffering in the sprint after their moves
Now we go back to the pre-race favourites, battling for 22nd - and it will be a battle, as Ricco has been reeled in - Gerrans and Ponzi closest to him, with the French ElAL duo, the impressive Sambris, and an also struggling Gilbert in this group.
Hermans is attacking behind, with Pozzato, Ventoso, Craven, Schumacher, Flugel, Ben Nasser, Martin, Kirchen, Vanspeybrouck, Moinard and Brolin all ahead of the peloton - where Milka lead the pace, and Kolobnev and Cobo finally decide to do something - perhaps they recognised it had long been a lost cause.
Semple takes 20th
And it is Jarc in 21st. Of all the possible finishing positions he could have got, he takes the one which means Milka finish behind Bacardi in the standings
Ricco wont be 22nd behind, as Ponzi passes him in the closing straight, but a stronger finish from Sylvain Chavanel secures 22nd, ahead of Ponzi, then Calzati, Ricco, Sambris and Gerrans
Gilbert then only just staying ahead of Hermans and Pozzato, but at least he launched the attempts to try to do something with the gap. Ultimately though, the big guns completely underestimated not only the size of the gap, but the strength of the riders they had allowed clear. Even after 30km of chasing and attacking, to try and close the 3 minute gap, they still end over 2 minutes down on Siutsou
So credit where credit is due. The front group fully deserved to stay away, and Red Bull in particular will be overjoyed with their season's ending
