The final race of the HC calendar starts right now! The riders will have to do 13 times the Utsonomiya circuit, and at the end of the race, we will know which team is the PCT champion, which is the fifth promoting team, and which team between Netia, Valio and MOL will continue another season in PCT
Three riders go since the first kms of the race in the breakaway
Shapira Logar Moulingui
There’s a crash in the back of the bunch within the first 30 kms of the race. No one important is affected, with Edet probably being the biggest name between those who fell.
The complete list is: Stuyven, Acevedo, Lane, Edet, Bico, Mugerli, Wang, Zielinski, Hasnaoui, Ubermekov and Hatsumaya.
Grieg and Newton haven’t started to work in the bunch yet, so the gap to the breakaway is 5 minutes
50 kms to go and just 4 laps left to finish the race, and the gap has been reduced to only 3 minutes. Both Grieg and Newton are working together, with those teams having the big favourites for the win today. Fablok, the team of reigning winner Froome, hasn’t appeared anywhere around the front, leaving the responsability of the chase to those teams.
We have another crash in the group, this time Moazemi, SPAR leader, being involved. This crash forces Fumeaux to retire from the race
Was about to say that Generali had stepped up and used both Molard and Thiery to speed up the race, bringing the breakaway to under a minute with 30 kms to go, when Ulissi confirms his team’s work attacking with 30 kms and 2 laps to go!
Schreurs and Froome tried to attack once they got to the front of the group, but suddenly they decided that it was better to rely on Newton and Grieg domestiques to bring Ulissi back
But Van Garderen soon would realise that his domestiques aren’t strong enough to chase Ulissi, and together with Froome, the American attacked with 24 kms to go, seeing that Ulissi’s gap was already 1 minute. Flügel was a bit late in the move, but the German could join this duo as the main chasing group to Ulissi
Ulissi has already caught the breakaway with 20 kms left, and as soon as he catches them, he attacks them. Serry is working in the bunch for Di Maggio, but EBH and Grieg looks to not be taking care of the chase. A strange decision, but the gap to TVG’s group isn’t that big yet
Serry’s effort helps to bring Froome, Van Garderen and Flügel back to the bunch, although Ulissi still has a gap over 1 minute to this group, which still has 100 riders with 18 kms to the finish
Ignatiev and Levarlet suffer a crash in the downhill that leads to the last 2 kms of the circuit which are uphill
Ulissi is about to start the final lap of the race, with only 13 kms remaining, but the now-reduced group (partly thanks to the latest crash, partly thanks to the rhythm) of 50 riders, still has several domestiques on it, and all are surprisingly in the first places of the group, with all the leaders in the places around 20-35
Hagen decides that he has had enough of sitting in the bunch doing nothing, and with 11 kms to go, he attacks trying to bridge the gap to Ulissi, who is starting to lap some riders, by himself
With 9 kms left we have now a trio leading the race, as not only Hagen has catched Ulissi, but also the defending champion Chris Froome. Ulissi’s chances has gone, and he will have to settle for a very bad result today, though his aggresive racing was really great to see.
30 seconds behind them, there’s a 26-rider group, which includes all the favourites for the win that aren’t in the first group
Gautier, Van Garderen, Di Maggio, Kinoshita, Jull-Jensen, Reichenbach, Flugel, Caruso, Schreurs, Waeytens, Mohoric, Veilleux, Palini, Krizek, Pavarin, Serry, Quevedo, Le Gac, Klemme, Henao, Barbin, Uchima, De Maar, Vink, Mendes and Watson
Final 5 kms of the race and Hagen attacks again trying to drop both Froome and Ulissi. The Italian has no energies and can’t follow anymore, while Froome is trying to hang on the Norwegian’s wheel now and see what happens next.
In the group, Gautier is taking the responsability of the chase, surely not a smart move if he wants a good result today
And Hagen breaks free for the win in Japan, as Froome isn’t able to follow him any longer, and is dropping back to the group, where Van Garderen is pulling right now
Kinoshita, Caruso, Van Garderen, Gautier, Juul-Jensen and Di Maggio are in the first positions of the group heading into the final km of the race. Hagen has a 20-second gap that should be enough to guarantee him the win, while we see in the back of the group both Ulissi and Froome, who are now struggling to follow the other riders, together with several Ferrero riders
Hagen is on the final 800 metres, when under the Flamme Rouge Van Garderen is starting his sprint, hoping he can recover the distance to Hagen
Van Garderen, Jull-Jensen and Kinoshita are the only 3 riders with enough power to fight for the second place today. The win looks to be safe for Hagen, and unless he explodes really hard, that will happen. Gautier and Di Maggio should fight for the final top5 place, though they should be careful with Waeytens, who is looking good for a nice result for the first time this year
Edvald Boasson Hagen wins Japan Cup, and that gives his team, Grieg - Eftel, the PCT title! Congrats to both rider and team for this amazing season!
No one could beat Van Garderen in the sprint for second place, and Jull-Jensen looks to be back on his California shape to take the final spot in the podium, ahead of the local hero Kinoshita. That second place for Van Garderen might give Newton the final promotion spot, but we’ll need to wait for the official rankings to confirm it
In fifth and sixth comes two riders from teams that are officially relegating to CT, as both Valio and MOL needed a miracle today to avoid relegation, and they haven’t made it. Both Gautier and Di Maggio could be interesting adding to 2018 CT field. Behind them, Caruso, Flugel, Schreurs and Waeytens. Orange surely wanted more from Schreurs today, but with their unexpeted results in Kigali a couple of days ago, they might be able to hold off Newton
Mohoric finishes ahead of Reichenbach just outside of the top10, while Veilleux completes a fantastic day for Carlsberg with an unexpected 13th place.
Behind them, it’s Ulissi and Froome. They are only 14th and 15th today, but it surely better to do it attacking and then lacking the energies to follow Hagen. Though this only confirms that Fablok won’t promote to PT this season, and also, with Froome confirmed to be leaving the team for next season, this is not the final race that both would have wanted. And behind them, three Ferrero riders, who can only hope that their depth is enough to keep that final promotion spot. Also, really impressve performance by Ignatiev, who has finishe just outside top20 despite crashing with 15 kms to go
And with the photo of Hagen in the podium we say goodbye to Japan and PCT says goodbye to the 2017 season!
