2017 Japan Cup (HC) Results

26th edition: Sunday, October 22, 2017

Japan Cup podium history | 2016 edition | 2018 edition

Sunday, October 22: Utsunomiya - Utsunomiya, Japan, 144.2 103 km (shortened because of bad weather)

Marco Canola wins the 2017 Japan Cup

The race: Here's the report from winner Marco Canola's Nippo-Vini Fantini team.

Marco Canola is the Japan Cup 2017 winner. A wonderful success and an historic double. He is the first rider ever to win both the Criterium and the Japan Cup in the same week-end. The first ever of the most important competition of Japan, a race of 1.HC category, a race won by big riders in the past such as Davide Villella in 2016 and also by the #OrangeBlue rider Damiano Cunego in 2008.

Many good competitors today, but the ambitions and motivations of the NIPPO Vini Fantini were at the top and the team reached an incredible double in Criterium and Japan Cup for his sponsor and many Japanese fans.

An unforgettable moment also for the Japanese brand NIPPO Corporation that today wins for the first time ever the Japan Cup of the PROs, with only a victory reached among Under23 category in the past.

Marco Canola on the finish line cannot contain his happiness for one of most important success of his career together with the Giro d’Italia stage victory: “I’m so happy for this victory, that have such a big value for the team and for me. Our team is Italian-Japanese and this is the best gift we can do to our sponsor and to our fans for the trust they give us everyday. I want to dedicate this victory to all our sponsors, today here also from Italy, and to my mother that was sick and I know that for sure I give her a big satisfaction.”

For Marco Canola it is the 6th personal victory of the season, with the additional success in the Criterium of yesterday. Victory number 12 of the team for a final part of the season in Japan that could not be better. A great satisfaction also for Mario Manzoni, the sports director of the team that in a season rich of great success is back in Japan for the first time in 27 years.

In 1990 as rider with the Under-23 Italian selection, the team win the World Championship with the victory of Mirco Gualdi, today as Sport Director of the NIPPO Vini Fantini, for the first time back in Japan, he won and reached this historic goal for NIPPO.

Complete Results:

103 kilometers raced at an average speed of 37.315 km/hr

1	Marco Canola	Nippo-Vini Fantini	2hr 45min 37sec
2	Benjamín Prades	Team Ukyo	s.t.
3	Takeaki Amezawa	Utsunomiya Blitzen	s.t.
4	Antwan Tolhoek	LottoNL-Jumbo	s.t.
5	Thomas Lebas	Kinan	s.t.
6	Jasper Stuyven	Trek-Segafredo	+34''
7	Ben Hill	Attaque-Gusto	s.t.
8	Enrico Battaglin	LottoNL-Jumbo	s.t.
9	Danilo Wyss	BMC	s.t.
10	Yusuke Hatanaka	Team Ukyo	s.t.
11	Davide Villella	Cannondale-Drapac	s.t.
12	Jai Crawford	Kinan	s.t.
13	José Vicente Toribio	Matrix Powertag	s.t.
14	Nathan Earle	Team Ukyo	s.t.
15	Óscar Pujol	Team Ukyo	s.t.
16	Ryota Nishizono	Bridgestone Anchor	s.t.
17	Ivan Santaromita	Nippo-Vini Fantini	s.t.
18	Sho Hatsuyama	Bridgestone Anchor	s.t.
19	Hideto Nakana	Nippo-Vini Fantini	s.t.
20	Alexey Vermeulen	LottoNL-Jumbo	s.t.
21	Masahiro Ishigami	Japan	+1' 16''
22	Charles Planet	Novo Nordisk	s.t.
23	Naoya Yoshioka	Nasu Blasen	+1' 18''
24	Koen de Kort	Trek-Segafredo	s.t.
25	Damiano Cunego	Nippo-Vini Fantini	+1' 22''
26	Koen Bouwman	LottoNL-Jumbo	+1' 33''
27	Yoshimitsu Hiratsuka	Team Ukyo	+3' 55''
28	Keisuke Kimura	Japan	s.t.
29	Yasuharu Nakajima	Kinan	+3' 58''
30	Hayato Okamoto	Japan	s.t.
31	Yukihiro Doi	Matrix Powertag	s.t.
32	Yuzuru Suzuki	Utsunomiya Blitzen	s.t.
33	Shotaru Iribe	Japan	s.t.
34	Airán Fernández	Matrix Powertag	s.t.
35	Manabu Ishibashi	Bridgestone Anchor	s.t.
36	David Lozano	Novo Nordisk	s.t.
37	Michael Schär	BMC	s.t.
38	Martin Elmiger	BMC	s.t.
39	Masayuki Shibata	Nasu Blasen	s.t.
40	Marcos García	Kinan	+4' 07''
41	Juan José Lobato	LottoNL-Jumbo	s.t.
42	Fumiyuki Beppu	Trek-Segafredo	+7' 15''
43	Alan Marangoni	Nippo-Vini Fantini	s.t.
44	Genki Yamamoto	Kinan	s.t.
45	Ryu Suzuki	Bridgestone Anchor	+8' 34''
46	Alex Howes	Cannondale-Drapac	+9' 11''
47	Daiki Yasuhara	Matrix Powertag	+11' 29''