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12th Japan Cup - 1.3
Japan, October 26, 2003
2002 Results Results Past winners
Ancora! Barbero wins Japan Cup again
By Miwako Sasaki, Japanese Cycle Sports
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Lampre's Sergio Barbero scored his third victory in the Japan Cup when the Italian beat young German Patrick Sinkewitz (Quick Step-Davitamon) in the final sprint today. Third place went to Guido Trentin (Cofidis) who was two seconds back at the end of the 151 km race.
The Japan Cup is held on the Utsunomiya Forest Park, the memorial circuit of the 1990 World's. It consists of 10 laps of 14.1 km and a short 10.3 km final lap for a total of 151.3km. 74 riders started under clear skies, including Luca Paolini (Quick Step-Davitamon) who injured himself during yesterday's cyclotourist event. He was still in pain, but said he felt "better than yesterday". Paolini's teammate Michael Rogers, one of the favourites today, said "I think today will be very hard, and we see in the last two laps."
Five Japanese riders attacked from the peloton at the start, and immediately got a 1'00 gap. The breakaways were ex-Colpack rider Hidenori Nodera (Shimano Racing), Koji Fukushima (JPCA), Daiske Hioki (CCD Kinan Bike System), Hiroshi Sakaguchi and Kentaro Eshita (both Asian Racing Team). But the Asian duo dropped out of the breakaway fairly soon, while the other three riders continued to increase their advantage to 4'30 gap in the first 6 laps. Then the race started.
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The Cofidis riders picked up the tempo in front of the peloton which gradually reduced in size. The breakaways were caught with three laps to go and Cofidis' Guido Trentin led the first group and won the "King of Mountain Prime" on the top of the climb (2 km from the start/finish line). The first group contained around 20 riders with two laps to go, including Paolini, Rogers, Sinkewitz, Trentin, and Barbero.
After some counter attacking from the first group, seven riders jumped clear: Sinkewitz, Barbero, Damiano Cunego and Gerrit Glomser (both Saeco), Felix Garcia Casas (Team Bianchi), Trentin and his teammate Daniel Atienza. Then Sinkewitz attacked the seven riders on the final climb, and was caught by Barbero and Trentin. Sinkewitz tried to attack again with 1 km to go, but Barbero was still strong and beat Sinkewitz in the sprint.
"The last climb was very hard, but I could pass it and still had some power with 500m to go," Barbero said after the race. He already won the Japan Cup in 1999 and last year, and is now being called "Mr. Japan Cup", like Claudio Chiappucci. (winner in 1993, 1994 and 1995).
Photography
Images by Miwako Sasaki/Japanese Cycle Sports
- Lampre riders relax before the start under the blue sky
- Cofidis's Guido Trentin ready for climbing
- Jean Delatour's Gilles Bouvard trying to use his new camera (made in Japan?)
- Luca Paolini is OK after injuring his right shoulder on the previous day
- Ex-Colpack rider Hidenori Nodera is one of the stars for the Japanese
- Australian Michael Rogers on the start line
- Last year's winner Sergio Barbero starts the race first (and finishes it first)
- Cofidis's Guido Trentin leads the first group with three laps to go, followed Patrik Sinkewitz (Quick Step - Davitamon) and Damiano Cunego (Saeco)
- Sergio Barbero (Lampre) crosses the finish line raising his hands
- Luca Paolini is still OK at the finish
- Winner Sergio Barbero (Lampre) is interviewed by small Japanese fans
- The 2003 Japan Cup podium: Patrick Sinkewitz (2nd), Sergio Barbero (1st) and Guido Trentin (3rd)
- Daisuke Hioki (L) and Hidenori Nodera are happy as they won the King of Mountain prize
Images by AFP
- The peloton pass behind a cosmoses field during the Japan Cup in Utsunomiya
- Patrik Sinkewitz (Quick Step) negotiates a corner
- Defending champion Sergio Barbero (Lampre) en route to winning the Japan Cup
- Sergio Barbero crosses the line to win the Japan Cup
- Patrik Sinkewitz of Quick Step , Sergio Barbero of Lampre and third placer Guido Trentin of Cofidis
- Sergio Barbero raises the trophy after winning the Japan Cup
Results - 151.3 km
1 Sergio Barbero (Ita) Lampre 4.03.56 (37.22 km/h) 2 Patrik Sinkewitz (Ger) Quick Step-Davitamon 3 Guido Trentin (Ita) Cofidis,Le Credit Par Telephone 0.02 4 Felix M. Garcia Casas (Spa) Team Bianchi 0.21 5 Daniel Atienza Urendez (Spa) Cofidis,Le Credit Par Telephone 6 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Saeco 0.41 7 Gerrit Glomser (Aut) Saeco 1.02 8 Marek Rutkiewicz (Pol) Cofidis,Le Credit Par Telephone 1.03 9 Alessandro Spezialetti (Ita) Saeco 1.05 10 Yasutaka Tashiro (Jpn) Team Bridgestone Anchor 1.29 11 Shinri Suzuki (Jpn) Shimano Racing 1.30 12 Tomoya Kano (Jpn) Shimano Racing 1.38 13 Shinichi Fukushima (Jpn) Team Bridgestone Anchor 2.15 14 Francisco Javier Vila Errandonea (Spa) Lampre 2.18 15 Mitsuteru Tanaka (Jpn) Aisan Racing Team 2.29 16 Guillem Munos (Spa) Team Orbea Etxe-Ondo 4.27 17 Leonardo Bertagnolli (Ita) Saeco 4.28 18 Daniele Righi (Ita) Lampre 4.38 19 Bingen Fernandez Bustinza (Spa) Cofidis,Le Credit Par Telephone 20 Angelo Lopeboselli (Ita) Cofidis,Le Credit Par Telephone 4.40 21 Luca Paolini (Ita) Quick Step-Davitamon 5.35 22 Michael Rogers (Aus) Quick Step-Davitamon 5.36 23 Simone Bertoletti (Ita) Lampre 7.32 24 Juan Fuentes Angullo (Spa) Saeco 7.33 25 Hisafumi Imanishi (Jpn) Shimano Racing 26 Makoto Iijima (Jpn) Sumita Ravanello Pearlizumi 7.34 27 Kazuya Okazaki (Jpn) Team Nippon Hodo 28 Kyoshi Miura (Jpn) Ccd Kinan Bike System 29 Ken Hashikawa (Jpn) Team Bridgestone Anchor 7.35 30 Koji Fukushima (Jpn) JPCA 7.36 31 Kazuyuki Manabe (Jpn) Miyata-Subaru Racing Team 32 Stefan Adamsson (Swe) Team Bianchi 7.37 33 David Canada Gracia (Spa) Quick Step-Davitamon 7.39 34 Koki Shimbo (Jpn) Aisan Racing Team 7.40 35 Akira Kakinuma (Jpn) Ccd Kinan Bike System 7.41 36 Davide Bramati (Ita) Quick Step-Davitamon 37 Makoto Takeuchi (Jpn) Team Orbea Etxe-Ondo 7.42 38 Francisco Jose Lara Ruiz (Spa) Team Bianchi 9.14 39 Juan Manuel Garate (Spa) Lampre 9.48 40 David Plaza Romero (Spa) Team Bianchi 10.28 41 Eddy Seigneur (Fra) Jean Delatour 10.51 42 Frederic Finot (Fra) Jean Delatour 43 Jerome Bernard (Fra) Jean Delatour DNF Steffen Radochla (Ger) Team Bianchi DNF Gilles Bouvard (Fra) Jean Delatour DNF Ludovic Martin (Fra) Jean Delatour DNF Satoshi Hirose (Jpn) Team Nippon Hodo DNF Luca Bompadre (Ita) Team Nippon Hodo DNF Satoshi Nakazato (Jpn) Team Orbea Etxe-Ondo DNF Hidenori Nodera (Jpn) Shimano Racing DNF Noriyuki Iijima (Jpn) JPCA DNF Motoo Masui (Jpn) JPCA DNF Satoshi Okubo (Jpn) JPCA DNF Hidenobu Otsuka (Jpn) JPCA DNF Takumi Beppu (Jpn) Team Nippon Hodo DNF Yukinaga Kodaira (Jpn) Team Nippon Hodo DNF Junichi Shibuya (Jpn) Team Bridgestone Anchor DNF Takehiro Mizutani (Jpn) Team Bridgestone Anchor DNF Masafumi Nishitani (Jpn) Team Orbea Etxe-Ondo DNF Shinya Numata (Jpn) Team Orbea Etxe-Ondo DNF Yoshimasa Hirose (Jpn) Shimano Racing DNF Ken Akita (Jpn) Aisan Racing Team DNF Hiroshi Sakaguchi (Jpn) Aisan Racing Team DNF Kentaro Eshita (Jpn) Aisan Racing Team DNF Masahiko Mifune (Jpn) Miyata-Subaru Racing Team DNF Kojiro Nakagawa (Jpn) Miyata-Subaru Racing Team DNF Tetsuya Ishida (Jpn) Miyata-Subaru Racing Team DNF Shinichi Amagasa (Jpn) Sumita Ravanello Pearlizumi DNF Ikki Yoneyama (Jpn) Sumita Ravanello Pearlizumi DNF Kazutaka Fukao (Jpn) Sumita Ravanello Pearlizumi DNF Yoshinori Iino (Jpn) Sumita Ravanello Pearlizumi DNF Akira Sumoto (Jpn) Ccd Kinan Bike System DNF Daisuke Hioki (Jpn) Ccd Kinan Bike System DNF Shinobu Noguchi (Jpn) Ccd Kinan Bike System
Past winners
2002 Sergio Barbero (Ita) Lampre-Daikin 2001 Gilberto Simoni (Ita) Lampre-Daikin 2000 Massimo Codol (Ita) Lampre-Daikin 1999 Sergio Barbero (Ita) Mercatone Uno-Bianchi 1998 Fabien De Waele (Bel) Lotto-Mobistar 1997 Yoshiyuki Abe (Jap) Mapei-GB 1996 Mauro Gianetti (Swi) Team Polti 1995 Claudio Chiappucci (Ita) Carrera Jeans 1994 Claudio Chiappucci (Ita) Carrera Jeans 1993 Claudio Chiappucci (Ita) Carrera Jeans 1992 Hendrik Redant (Bel) Lotto Past winners by Mario Stiehl, www.world-of-cycling.com
