Lenny Martinez rides to the win at Japan Cup

As the pro road peloton’s racing season is coming to an end in the Far East, Lenny Martinez crowned his strong season with a solo victory at the 32nd Japan Cup. The week before, Team Bahrain Victorious had recorded a number of top 5 and top 10 results at the Tour of Guangxi, which was raced in China.

This Sunday saw the 32nd edition of the Utsunomiya Japan Cup Road Race. Team Bahrain Victorious sent a strong and ambitious line-up to Japan, relying on Lenny Martinez as its captain and in-form Afonso Eulalio as his back-up. Riding in their support were Rainer Kepplinger, Torstein Traeen and Vlad van Mechelen, with Yoshiki Terada getting a chance to prove his worth on home turf as a guest-rider from the Bahrain Victorious Development Team. The Criterium race was held on Saturday on a circuit in the streets of Utsunomiya, and  Vlad van Mechelen sprinted to a podium result in 3rd place, only beaten by Jonathan Milan and Mika Heming.

The main race of the Japan Cup was held on a more demanding circuit around the city of Utsunomiya that contained the tricky Kogashiyama climb. Seeing the 14 laps at hand, the race turned into a serious battle of attrition, with Afonso Eulalio and Lenny Martinez making good use of their climbing abilities to blunt down their rivals before the young Frenchman attacked and pushed on to celebrate a solo victory. After stage wins at Paris-Nice, the Tour de Romandie and the Critérium du Dauphiné, this was the fourth win of the season for Lenny Martinez. Thus, the Frenchman finished a season on a high, where he had scored half of Team Bahrain Victorious' victories.

As the final race of the UCI WorldTour calendar, the Tour of Guangxi, held in China's Southwest, featured six stages. Five of those looked like opportunities for sprinters to add to their season's tally, with just one stage finishing uphill and thus qualifying as the Queen's stage. The line-up of Team Bahrain Victorious reflected the race's characteristics. As the team's designated sprinter, Phil Bauhaus could rely on the support of Andrea Pasqualon and Daniel Skerl. Meanwhile, Pello Bilbao took aim at a top 5 on GC, relying on the support of the likes of Roman Ermakov, Mathijs Paaschens and Max van der Meulen.

Deep into the finale of the opening stage, a large mass pile-up occurred, and sadly, Phil Bauhaus could not avoid the mayhem. From there, Team Bahrain Victorious had to adapt its tactics, and it did so successfully. With a 4th and a 5th place, young Daniel Skrel recorded two top 5 results in the following two stages - his best career results to date. As the finales of both stage 4 and stage 6 were more hilly, Andrea Pasqualon tried his hand in the sprints of reduced pelotons. Returning from a long break due to injury, Pasqualon fared respectably with a 6th and a 7th place. Pello Bilbao finished the Queen's stage in 10th place, which put him in 8th place on GC - a bit lower in the standings than what he had aimed for.

RESULTS:
32. UTSUNOMIYA JAPAN CUP ROAD RACE: UTSUNOMIYA - UTSUNOMIYA, 144.2KM
1. Lenny Martinez, FRA/TEAM BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS, in 3:30.00 hours
2. Alex Baudin, FRA, + 0.32
3. Ion Izagirre, ESP, st

UTSUNOMIY JAPAN CUP CRITERIUM, UTSUNOMIYA - UTSUNOMIYA, 33.8KM
1. Jonathan Milan, ITA, in 39.58 minutes
2. Mika Heming, GER, st
3. Vlad van Mechelen, BEL/TEAM BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS, st