Arashiro holds off Bernal and Roglic to win Saitama Criterium

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Local hero Yukiya Arashiro (Bahrain-Merida) pulled off an upset at the Saitama Criterium, holding off Tour de France champion Egan Bernal (Team Ineos) and Vuelta a España champion Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) to take a solo victory.

Arashiro has been a mainstay of the end-of-season exhibition event in Japan in recent years, but has largely found himself written out of the script at the expense of the bigger names. 

Chris Froome (Team Ineos) did not ride the criterium race but returned to competition four months after his terrible crash by riding the three-rider 3.1km team time trial with Bernal and Michal Kwiatkowski.

The Team Ineos trio finishing 12th, the last of Tour de France teams in the classification. The four Japanese teams were faster than the big-name teams; the AG2R trio finished fifth with an average speed of 46.9 kmph, three seconds ahead of Astana and seven seconds ahead of the Jumbo-Visma squad.

This year, 35-year-old Arashiro made the decisive selection with 16km and just over four laps of the 3.5km circuit remaining, and went solo with three kilometres to go. 

Initially, he was in a move with Jakob Fuglsang (Astana), Luka Mezgec (Mitchelton-Scott), Oliver Naesen (AG2R La Mondiale), Jonathan Castroviejo (Team Ineos), and Kohei Uchima (Team Ukyo). 

Seven kilometres later, Bernal and Roglic bridged across, along with Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) and Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton-Scott).

Total Direct Energie launched a futile chase, with full commitment shown by Anthony Turgis, who emptied his bidon across the road in a desperate attempt to lighten the load. 

With five kilometres to go, Arashiro went clear with Fuglsang, while Bernal and Roglic set about chasing them down. Fuglsang fell away with three kilometres to go, leaving Arashiro out front against the Grand Tour winners. 

He maintained his slim advantage all the way to the line, slowing to celebrate to huge cheers from the local crowds. 

Bardet, wearing the polka-dot jersey he won at the Tour de France, won the mountains classification thanks to his presence in the early breaks, while Trentin similarly claimed the green points jersey.