The final countdown. The last chance. Who is going to win the last PCT race? Can the relegation battle be turned around here? Let's see soon:
On the first 3 rounds of the circuit around Utsonimaya attacks happen, but nobody comes away. Especially Gallopin counters every move so far, no matter who his captain will be today. We also have an early crash by Dekker, but his whole team manages to bring him back.
At the end it's 4 riders in that break after the fourth passage of the climb of the circuit:
Tulik Puusepp Eliad Lagab
They have 110 kilometers left for showing the jerseys.
Pacing in the peloton do especially the swiss teams Vontobel & UBS at first, but also Generali & Meiji. Later In-N-Out & Wiesenhof join too.
100 km - 4'30
80 km - 4'30
60 km - 3'40
50 km - 3'05
40 km - 2'00
Meiji takes over full control now. Surely they want a victory today.
30 km - 1'30
25 km - 1'05
Dekker...
...is clearly injured and can't follow anymore. Still 140 riders in the peloton.
20 km - 1'30
15 km - 1'15
Does the breakaway have a chance here? It kind of looks like it, with 2 passages left.
Exactly where we expect the action to take on the next lap,...
... Flügel attacks with Kinoshita and Ulissi following. Also Froome with them, while Bellis doesn't manage to bridge ovber and hangs between the groups.
Ziesler leads the peloton now for Bystrom, but they quickly lost as much as one minute to the group on the climb, that now have overtaken the breakaway.
But somebody is not done here!
Over the climb Di Maggio tries to come back with some big digs, bringing van der Hugenhaben, Ben Nasser and Gautier with them.
At the front...
... Bellis has managed to jump across, and Ayubowan decides to let the Brit work and the Frenchman in the second group to sit on the wheels. Current situation with 5 to go:
Bellis, Flügel, Kinoshita, Ulissi, Froome
Ben Nasser, di Maggio, van der Hugenhaben, Gautier, (Puusepp) + '40
Talansky, Bystrom, Sanchez, Gilbert + 1'13
Peloton (including Reichenbach, Schumacher, Fatancourt, Vanendert) + 1'45
Group McCarthy + 2'52
2 kilometers: The advantage increased to 45 seconds, it will be between these 5:
And you see Froome attacking right before the climb starts, but the opponence is up to that challenge.
Instead they sit on his wheel until 700 to go, from where we'll now see shots of all 3 groups:
Please ignore the groups in between that for some reason have not been taken out. It's 5 at the front, in the second group Di Maggio attacks, and in the third Bystrom has gone forward just overtaking Puusepp.
When will the sprint start upfront? With 300 to go. No pics from here as the riders are exactly in the group of lapped riders. Froome from the fore, Kinoshita in the wheel. Bellis and Ulissi as well, Flügel fades.
100 meter:
It looks great for Froome to again beat Kinoshita. Even a late push for promotion?
Not surely,...
...but Chris Froome wins the Japan Cup. Second for local hero Kinoshita, third and final step on the podium for a fast upcoming Ulissi. A decent result though for Bellis in fourth, and with their title Wiesenhof also won't be too unhappy with Flügel. What a season they had.
Minor places to...
... Di Maggio, but will that be enough to save the season? Doubtfully. We might have seen him the last time in a Vontobel jersey sadly now. Not following the move in the penultimate lap might have cost his team the avoiding of relegation, but that's a story of more the whole season than just today.
7th for Gautier, who could've done better clearly if he'd have had the go. van der Hugenhaben couldn't help his team over the line either, while Ben Nasser in 9th can celebrate promotion!
A final Top10 spot...
...for Bystrom, who showed his class today. We don't know where the destination for him will turn to next season in terms of division, but the late push of his team could mean promotion as well.
Good results from Kadri and Talansky too as well as Puusepp, who saved a horrible day for the Irish here.
But now let's come back to our winner of today, and the last PCT winner of the Man-Game season 2016: Chris Froome. A training camp in the height might not be enough to make him a GT contender next year, but knowing him only the Sky is the limit. With this incredibly bad pun I'll farewell the 2016 regular season as well, it was a pleasure to report from the Man Game in my first season. See you at the NCs!
Japan 
