Utsunomiya Japan Cup Road Race

The Japan Cup is a men's one-day bike race held in October in Utsunomiya, Japan, on a circuit through the city's Forest Park, 10.3 kilometers a lap since 2015. Every lap climbs the Kogashi forest road, 1.14 kilometers at an average of 8.4 percent. Its full name is the Utsunomiya Japan Cup Road Race, and it closes a three-day event, the Utsunomiya Japan Cup Cycle Road Race, that also has a criterium on the city's main street.

The Japan Cup is a one-day road race for men, held each October on a hilly circuit in the Forest Park of Utsunomiya. Every lap goes up the Kogashi forest road. It has been raced since 1992, and Claudio Chiappucci and Sergio Barbero share the record of three wins.

Why was the Japan Cup created?

The race was first held in 1992 as a memorial to the road world championships of 1990. Those championships were held in Utsunomiya, where Rudy Dhaenens won the men’s road race ahead of his Belgian teammate Dirk De Wolf. Six foreign teams came to the first Japan Cup. Hendrik Redant, who had won Paris-Tours a month earlier, went clear late in the race with the American Bart Bowen, and the two rode about 30 kilometers together before Redant won the sprint.

In 1996 the Japan Cup was the last round of the World Cup series, and Mauro Gianetti won it. In 2008, its 17th edition, the UCI moved the race up from class 1 to hors categorie.

Claudio Chiappucci’s three wins in a row

Chiappucci won in 1993, 1994 and 1995, each time in a different way. In 1993 he attacked on the sixth lap, halfway through the race, dropped his last two companions on the final lap and won by 3 minutes 41 seconds. A year later the new world champion Luc Leblanc attacked first, in the rainbow jersey; Chiappucci passed him and rode away from Erich Mächler on the last lap. In 1995 he reached the line with Mauro Gianetti and the sprinter Stefano Zanini and beat Zanini by centimeters.

Sergio Barbero is the only other rider with three wins. He won sprints from small groups in 1999, 2002 and 2003, the last of them against Patrik Sinkewitz and Guido Trentin.

Yoshiyuki Abe, the first Japanese winner

The 1997 race was the last of Daisuke Imanaka’s career, and he was in the group of four that started the final lap. Two of the others, Yoshiyuki Abe and Andrea Tafi, rode for Mapei. Abe rode ahead; when Gianetti fell back, Tafi accelerated away from Imanaka, caught his teammate, and the two crossed the line hand in hand. Abe was given the win, the first by a Japanese rider, and Imanaka finished fourth. Through 2025 no other Japanese rider has won.

Kogashi forest road, the climb on every lap

The circuit starts and finishes at the Forest Park. The climb of the Kogashi forest road measures 1.14 kilometers at an average of 8.4 percent from the fishing pond to the summit. On the last lap the summit is about 8 kilometers from the finish, and a descent through hairpins comes straight after it.

In 2014 the race was still ten laps of 14.1 kilometers and a last lap of 10.3, 151.3 kilometers in all, the distance it had had since 1997. After heavy rain in September 2015 the organizer chose a shortened course, and every edition since has been run on a lap of 10.3 kilometers. In 2024 and 2025 that meant 14 laps, 144.2 kilometers with 2,660 meters of climbing.

In 2007, when the race was still 151.3 kilometers long, Riccardo Riccò, the winner of the year before, rode away from everyone on the last climb and crossed the top alone. He crashed on the descent. The group passed him, and with 3 kilometers left his teammate Manuele Mori attacked on the flat road after the descent and took his first professional win at 27.

How rain shortened the race in 2017 and 2023

Rain on race day cut the distance in 2017 and in 2023. In 2017 the race was reduced from 14 laps to 10, 103 kilometers, and Marco Canola won a five-rider sprint. He had also won the criterium, the first rider to take both races at one Japan Cup. In 2023 the planned 16 laps became 13, and Rui Costa beat Felix Engelhardt and Guillaume Martin in a three-rider sprint.

Michael Rogers finished alone in heavy rain in 2013. The sample taken at the race tested positive for clenbuterol, and the UCI disqualified his result while finding a significant probability that contaminated meat was the cause. In 2019 a typhoon damaged the course a week before the race, and it was repaired in time.

Neilson Powless wins in 2022 and 2024

No race was held in 2020 or 2021. When it returned in 2022, Neilson Powless attacked on the second-to-last lap, with 14 kilometers left, and stayed clear; his teammate Andrea Piccolo was second, 12 seconds behind. Two years later Powless was one of five riders who reached the last kilometer together. Mauri Vansevenant attacked there, Powless followed in his slipstream, started his sprint with 300 meters to go and held it to the line.

Lenny Martinez attacks on three laps in 2025

Lenny Martinez accelerated on the Kogashi climb with three laps to go, and seven riders were left in front. He did it again a lap later. On the last lap he attacked at the foot of the climb and crossed the summit with a lead of 10 seconds. Alex Baudin and Ion Izagirre chased together, but Martinez, 22, added to his lead on the rolling second half of the lap and won by 32 seconds.

In 2025 Lenny Martinez attacked on the Kogashi climb on each of the last three laps, crossed the top 10 seconds clear the last time and won by 32 seconds. In 2007 Riccardo Riccò led alone over the same summit on the last lap and crashed on the descent, and his teammate Manuele Mori won.