ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW WITH ONE DAY TO GO
November 1 st 2024 - 19:22 [GMT + 9]
The riders who lit up the Grande Boucle last July spent the day before the tenth edition of the Tour de France J:COM Saitama Criterium talking to a wide range of Japanese and international media before discovering the local sports and cultural scene at Saitama University.
The green jersey and three-time stage winner Biniam Girmay recalled his momentous Tour de France campaign, as did Romain Bardet, who finally got to wear the yellow jersey in his swansong appearance.
Saitama pulled out all the stops to welcome its illustrious visitors, including a footprint ceremony involving the former winners of the Criterium present this year: Chris Froome (2013), Marcel Kittel (2014), John Degenkolb (2015), Mark Cavendish (2017), Yukiya Arashiro (2019) and Jasper Philipsen (2022). Their footprints will be put on display at City Hall.
Tomorrow, the riders will go head to head over 17 laps of a 3.6 km course, for a full length of 61.2 km. 26 Japanese riders competing for local teams will rub shoulders with 25 elite international riders.
BINIAM GIRMAY: "I'M SURE EXPERIENCE MADE THE DIFFERENCE"
The 2024 Tour was a turning point for Biniam Girmay: three "absolutely insane" weeks in which he bagged three stage wins and outmuscled Jasper Philipsen in the fight for green to net Eritrea —and Africa as a whole— its first ever distinctive jersey. The Intermarché–Wanty sprinter had already put his name on the map by taking Gent–Wevelgem and a stage at the Giro in 2022 but, even so, the Grande Boucle was a whole new experience for him, one he discovered in 2023 and made his own last summer: "Nowhere are the sprints as hectic and scary as in the Tour, you really have no friends once the race hits the home straight", he points out. "That might have been the reason why victory eluded me until my second start. I was already over the moon with how it had gone on my first try, but I'm sure experience made the difference." All of a sudden, his trophy case was bursting at the seams and "Bini-mania" swept the nation in a way that still amuses the unpretentious 24-year-old: "Being the talk of the town is really nice, but it's so different from how I was raised. Things are bonkers in Eritrea. Even here, in Japan, cycling fans stop me to take a picture. I have a great deal of respect for all these people who take the time to watch our races on TV and then come out to wait for us at the entrance to our hotel, for example. It means a lot to me". The winner of the points classification —a lean, green winning machine— studiously watched the 2025 Tour route presentation. He knows that the inaugural stage could end in a bunch sprint in Lille, with the victor also pulling on the yellow jersey: "If there's a chance, you need to take it, so I'll do my absolute best to be ready. But, as a relatively lightweight rider who can go over this sort of climbs, stage 2 might actually suit me too". For now, the Saitama urban circuit could give him a taste of glory… provided that he can outfox the opposition tomorrow afternoon.
ROMAIN BARDET: "I SACRIFICED A LOT OF THINGS FOR THE TOUR, BUT IT WAS WORTH IT"
When a young man from Auvergne finished the 2013 Tour as the top French rider (fifteenth), it was only the beginning. Romain Bardet, a stage winner in three consecutive editions (2015 through 2017) and second overall in 2016, at the height of the Chris Froome supremacy, spent a decade forging strong ties with a race that also cost him more than a few tears when he crashed out in 2020 and 2023. Coming onto the stage for his final bow, Bardet, who had joined DSM–Firmenich in 2021, went out with a barnstorming performance he had rehearsed in his mind before hopping on the saddle for the opening stage to Rimini. "I knew I was in blistering form", he says, looking back on the season. "After I got up, I even said I was either going to win that stage or lose twenty minutes trying!" Everything fell into place for him on the shores of the Adriatic, where he and his young stablemate Frank van den Broeck kept the peloton at bay in the final metres. By taking his fourth Tour stage win, Bardet also seized his final opportunity to pull on the yellow jersey. "I would have been fine with never wearing it, but after wearing the white jersey and taking the polka-dot jersey, it was nice to complete the collection. More than anything, it would have hurt to wrap up my career as an also-ran. All in all, I sacrificed a lot of things for the Tour, but it was worth it."
JASPER PHILIPSEN HITS THE RIGHT NOTE ON THE CHAMPS-ÉLYSÉES!
The riders in the Criterium were invited to take part in a double-barrelled cross-cultural session at Saitama University. First, Yukiya Arashiro, Mark Cavendish and Primož Roglič donned aikidogi uniforms for an introduction to aikido, a martial art that turns the strength of the opponent against him. The Slovenian champion took to it like a duck to water, renaming the ancestral technique to Shiobulo with flair: "It's a traditional sport, but I must confess I gave it my own spin". Students with an expert command of the koto, a stringed instrument requiring extremely high dexterity, gave the second lesson of the day. Following a virtuoso demonstration of San San Sakura, which can be loosely translated as The Song of the Cherry Blossoms, an orchestra of novices consisting of Romain Bardet, Biniam Girmay and Jasper Philipsen filled the air with music after learning the basics to be able to play Les Champs-Élysées by Joe Dassin. "I have no talent for music", cautioned the Alpecin–Deceuninck sprinter, who nonetheless produced the most faithful rendition of the original version when the time came to pluck the strings. Not really surprising, coming from the man who took the finale of the 2022 edition on the chestnut tree-lined avenue in Paris!