The World Champion had to ditch his iconic stripes and the podium was rigged, all in the name of entertainment. Is this disrespectful to the riders who travelled all the way to Japan?
Le Tour de France Saitama Criterium is held around this time every year in Japan; when the season has ended for most road riders.
But still a huge number of big names make the trip to the land of the rising sun, with several of the World Tour teams present.
The event earlier today was won by Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) followed by Japanese champion Sho Hatsuyama (Bridgestone-Anchor), Chris Froome (Team Sky) and Adam Yates (Orica-BikeExchange).
Sagan was wearing his Tour de France green points winner's jersey, Froome was in his Tour yellow jersey and Yates in the white jersey he won at the Tour for best young rider.
Advertisement
The jersey choice – and the result – is due to the fact that the event, as its title suggests, is owned by the Tour de France.
The bunch made up of two groups of riders for the day; those designated by ASO as the ones they want to win and the others who take on circus monkey status, designated as such by ASO.
It was no surprise to see Sagan win this criterium; he can pretty much win on any terrain.
But the presence of the little-heralded Japanese champion Hatsuyama in 2nd against some of the biggest names in the sport followed by Froome and Yates finishing 3rd and 4th (in a criterium!) is unusual.
Related News
If the composition of the podium and winning four-man breakaway wasn’t enough evidence for you, the footage below shows how blatantly the race is rigged.
The Tour jersey wearers were allowed to fall off the front in the finale, with everyone else deliberately holding back to ensure a result that suited the Tour owners ASO.
The race was televised and covered by the cycling media as a regular event, with no mention the result is fixed.
Even winner Sagan spoke afterwards like it had been a regular race.
“It was a very fast start; a breakaway got caught, another one started," he said.
"Eventually the race became a bit more quiet so I waited for three or four laps to go to make my move because I knew I’d suffer too much if I bridged the gap on all the attackers.
"We rode strongly at the end. I was the fastest of the four so it went well for me.”
Post-Tour criteriums are different; they are not owned by the Tour de France and they are precessions.
They are also held in Europe where the teams are based – which means there is no long travel to them – and (crucially) it is individual riders who race; they are not told to do so by their teams.
But the ASO dragging the best teams in the world all the way to Japan at this time of year for a race with a fixed result seems pretty obnoxious to us.
The result is hugely disrespectful to all those riders brought to Asia just to make up a bunch from which the three stars and a home hero could spring unchallenged in a rigged "attack".
The fact Sagan had to ditch his world champion’s jersey just about sums up the corporate greed at the centre of this.
Let us know what you think.
" controls="controls" />
Topics
