Saitama Criterium - Biniam Girmay sails over line first as Japan gets its taste of the Tour de France

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The green-jersey clad Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) was a fitting victor for the tenth Saitama Criterium on Saturday, winding up the pace to catch an escaped Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) just before the line as the top riders from the Tour de France put on an exciting show for the fans who lined the streets of the city circuit.

The criterium, an exhibition of top Tour de France talent, played out in uncharacteristically wet conditions in Saitama City, 30km to the north of Tokyo. Riders got a brief respite from the rain as they cut through the Saitama stadium during each of the 17 laps of the 3.6km course, though many of the spectators braved the increasingly wet weather for hours as they watched the day unfold.

Breaks continually flew and were then pulled back in time for entertaining intermediate sprint battles, where the likes of Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan) and Girmay rolled out the accelerations. The final break of the 61.2km event then went in the final laps, comprising of Romain Bardet (dsm firmenich-PostNL), the home-nation's Yukiya Arashiro (Bahrain Victorious) and Roglič. The first two ultimately fell back to the bunch to leave the four-time Vuelta a España winner out front solo before he was swept up on the line by Girmay, who took the winners jersey in Saitama amid a supportive crowd.

“To be honest I didn’t expect to see so many people recognise me, calling my name, cheering, you really feel emotional, it was so beautiful,” said Girmay in the post race media conference. “For us we are here because we are here working but for the fans out there in full rain, they are supporting us and you really feel it, how passionate they are for cycling.” 

Cavendish, the winner of a record 35 Tour de France stages, and 2023 points jersey champion Philipsen crossed the line in third and fourth among the group of top Tour riders who came out during their off season to bring a sample of the race to Japan.

"Out of Europe it is difficult to get to the Tour de France,” said Cavendish when speaking to Cyclingnews and Cycling Weekly in the day before the event unfolded. 

“What makes cycling beautiful is getting close to the riders, getting close to the arena, getting close to the race. And to really experience that outside of Europe... I think it's important for riders to kind of give back to sport and to help the sport grow by doing that.”

The event also included a team time trial before the criterium with seven teams from Japan taking on the three to four rider WorldTour squads of (Intermarché-Wanty), DSM-Firmenich-Post NL, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, Astana Qazaqstan and Bahrain Victorious along with ProTeam Total Energies and a TDF Legends team including Chris Froome (Israel-Premier Tech), Philipsen (Alpecin Deceuninck), Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Dstny) and Ben O’Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) –although a crash took him out of the racing. Japan's Shimano Racing came out on top this time.

The racing, however, was not the only chance cycling followers in Japan got to see  the riders up close, with plenty of time spent signing autographs between a run of events on Friday for the riders that included dipping into Aikido  – a Japanese art of self-defence and playing the national instrument, the koto.

The Tour de France criteriums continue on Sunday November 10 in Singapore with many of the riders the were in Japan heading over. Though there are a few new names as well, from Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Dstny) to the now retired Vincenzo Nibali. The event had also been slated as Cavendish's last time pinning on a number before retiring from his professional racing career but comments at the Tour de France presentation have raised questions over whether he may opt to continue on.