Four TNN Riders Finish Top 20 at Japan Cup Crit

21 October 2017

Race: Japan Cup Criterium

Start/Finish: Utsunomiya/ Utsunomiya, Japan

Distance: 38.25 kilometers

Utsunomiya, JAPAN — Team Novo Nordisk’s Romain Gioux finished just outside the top 10 when he sprinted to 11th place at the Japan Cup Criterium. Saturday’s race served as the first of two one-day events in Utsunomiya, Japan.

The short crit around downtown Utsunomiya began with two parade laps followed by 15 laps of high-speed racing around a 2.25-kilometer course featuring several u-turns.

The race, which is not an UCI-sanctioned event, was held under unusually wet and cold conditions. Nathan Haas (Criterium Special Riders) launched the first attack on the opening lap and Team Novo Nordisk’s Chris Williams quickly joined him. The duo was quickly reeled in with four primes on the line and Trek Segafredo motivated for the third consecutive victory of Japanese native Fumi Beppu.

Attacks continued to fly with Danilo Wyss (BMC Racing Team) briefly off the front solo. On the final lap, Team LottoNL-Jumbo and Trek battled it out for position. Yet Italian Marco Canola (Nippo-Vini Fantini) experienced a mechanical, made a bike change, and launched a late race attack to take an unexpected win.

Team Novo Nordisk CEO & Co-founder Phil Southerland:

“Chris Williams off the front. Charles Planet off the front. We put on a good show here for our friends and fans and the 80,000 strong in the rain at Utsunomiya.”

The world’s first all-diabetes pro cycling team continues racing at the Japan Cup on Sunday with the 144.2-km road race. The riders will complete 14 laps around a 10.3-km course.