The Japan Cup Cycle Road Race is an annual professional

road bicycle racing Road bicycle racing is the cycle sport discipline of road cycling, held primarily on paved roads. Road racing is the most popular professional form of bicycle racing, in terms of numbers of competitors, events and spectators. The two most common ...

classic one-day race held in the city of

Utsunomiya is the prefectural capital city of Tochigi Prefecture in the northern Kantō region of Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 519,223, and a population density of . The total area of the city is . Utsunomiya is famous for its ''gyoza'' ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

since 1992. The race usually held in October each year. It is sanctioned by the International Cycling Union (UCI) as a 1.Pro race as part of the

UCI ProSeries The UCI ProSeries is the second tier men's elite road cycling tour. It was inaugurated in 2020. The series is placed below the UCI World Tour, but above the various regional UCI Continental Circuits. Development In December 2018, the UCI ann ...

History

The race is held since 1992 at a circuit around the Utsunomiya Forest Park where 1990 UCI Road World Championships took place. Japan Cup was a round of 1996 UCI Road World Cup. Since 2008, it was a 1.HC (hors category) race as part of the UCI Asia Tour. It became 1.Pro race since the start of

in 2020, although the race was canceled in that year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since 2010, an exhibition

criterium A criterium, or crit, is a bike race consisting of several laps around a closed circuit, the length of each lap or circuit ranging from about 400 m to 10,000 m. Overview Race length can be determined by a number of laps or total time ...

race Japan Cup Criterium is held in downtown Utsunomiya on the day before the UCI road race.

Past winners

References

External links

* *
Statistics
at ''the-sports.org''
Japan Cup
at ''cqranking.com'' * Cycle races in Japan UCI Asia Tour races Recurring sporting events established in 1992 1992 establishments in Japan UCI Road World Cup races Japan Cup {{Cycling-race-stub