Japan Cup, Quinn Simmons outsmarts Ben Healy in the sprint

Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) closed the season with a bang. The US national champion won the Japan Cup, scoring his tenth career victory and beating Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) in a two-man sprint, having broken away with 30 km to go.

At the finish line in Utsunomiya, after 144.2 km on a very uneven course, the two failed to break away and went head-to-head in a sprint. Simmons prevailed, showing off his speed, finishing in 3:33:02 ahead of the Irishman.

The leading pair proved to be the strongest of the bunch, thanks to the frontline work of Lidl-Trek and EF Education-EasyPost. Once they broke away, the chasers were unable to catch up and were left out of contention for the win.

Behind the two escapees, the closest pursuer was Belgian Jenno Berckmoes (Lotto-Intermarché), who outsprinted Jordan Jegat (TotalEnergies) to take third place. He closed out the season positively, with two top 10 finishes in Japan, in both the road race and the criterium. Also in the top chasing pack were Nicolò Garibbo (Team Ukyo), Julien Bernard (Lidl-Trek), and Sam Maisonobe (Cofidis).

Completing the top 10 were Federico Iacomoni (Team Ukyo), Baptiste Vadic, and Alexandre Delettre (both TotalEnergies). Further back was Sam Oomen (Lidl-Trek) in eleventh place, Michael Matthews (Jayco-AlUla) in nineteenth, and Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) in twentieth.

Sprint Cycling Photos