🎥 Vingegaard hits the deck in Japanese criterium, but is aided by UAE as he returns and snatches 'victory'
CyclingSunday, 09 November 2025 at 11:40
The post‑Tour criteriums in the Netherlands and Belgium wrapped up weeks ago, but in Asia there’s still decent appearance money on the table. After stopovers in Taiwan and Singapore, the stars lined up in Japan for the Saitama Criterium — and it delivered the usual dose of theatre.
Big names such as Jonas Vingegaard, Jonathan Milan, Primoz Roglic, Tim Wellens and Valentin Paret‑Peintre took the start. As is customary at these exhibition races, there were plenty of playful ‘attacks’ and set‑piece moves. In the end, Vingegaard celebrated a solo ‘win’, though that wasn’t the main talking point.
With around 16 kilometres to go, the Dane from Visma | Lease a Bike went down on the deck — seemingly ending any chance of victory. But moments later he was paced back into contention by Davide Stella of UAE Team Emirates‑XRG, after which he rejoined the lead group. Following a ‘pull’ and soft acceleration from Tim Wellens, Vingegaard slipped away and crossed the line alone.
Check the footage from the Saitama Criterium, with crash from Vingegaard:
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Latest Comments
- Now the Palestinian protestors can stop their whining. Trump came to the rescue. So they can now STFU and go back to waving the rainbow flags.raufus15-10-2025
- Cracked the code lol. If it was that easy to 'crack the code' jonny Vegas would be charging up the Kwaremont giving Pog a dose of his medicine. Evenepoel can't match pog on a climb and neither can mvdp. Anything with a half difficult climb and Pog smashes the field. Even on flat(ish)parcours like Roubaix it came down to a mistake and crash by pog to definitively crown mvdp. MSR is the only one that Pog probably won't win.kevpt10-10-2025
- We've seen this movie before. I think Pogacar is doping.DeadBlow10-10-2025
- 👍Bea08-10-2025
- 👌🏻Bea08-10-2025
- What the data doesn't show is how much of an effect drafting had for evenepoel. Pogacar went with del toro at 100km whilst Evenepoel was still in the bunch. Despite the bike changes he still had a lot of assistance getting back to the bunch. Pogacar then rode 60km solo whilst evenepoel rode with Healy/Skjelmose until going solo in thd last 10-15km. Thats ~20% less power / energy requirements for 45-50km. Apples and oranges...kevpt30-09-2025
- 👏👏Bea24-09-2025
- Agreed! As we all know now, Juan Ayuso will be on another team. But it was sweet to see him win the stages at La Vuelta. I do love the drama of cycling admittedly but its clear to see the talent of winners of stages in a Grand Tourryhw2814fq921-09-2025
- Pogacar has no competition he has won everything, I cant imagine even being him in that position!! Crazy. I am sure he has some back up plan for how he wants to spend his retirement years at age 30 onward. Does he like beer? Plenty of innovation in brewing. And you don't have to be super social. Chapeau/Cheers whatever you like Tadej you will do.ryhw2814fq921-09-2025
- Plus its confirmed that the Philadelphia Cycling Classic up the Manayunk Wall is back for 2026! hooray for thatryhw2814fq918-09-2025
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