ツアー・オブ・ジャパン 2023

Carter BETTLES (VICTOIRE HIROSHIMA), who attacks at the start, wins the Inabe stage with a dramatic breakaway that will go down in the history of the event.

The day 3 of the Tour of Japan 2023 comes at Ageki station of Sangi Railway, Hokusei line in Mie prefecture. After a 3.1km neutral section, riders made eight laps in the 14.8km Inabe City Bairin (plum) Park circuit, a course with a total distance of 127.0km. ‘INABERG’, a steep hill that has become one of Tour of Japan's specialties, awaits the riders just before the finish line.

The attack battles began immediately after the actual start. Two riders, Kevin MCCAMBRIDGE (TRINITY RACING) and Carter BETTLES (VICTOIRE HIROSHIMA) completely escaped, succeeded in making a breakaway and crossed the control line on the first lap with an 11-second time gap. While the pace of the main group settled down as the two-breakaway was quickly accepted. The front group was aggressive and the time gap to the main group widened from 1 minute 43 seconds at the end of the first lap, 3 minutes 1 second on the second lap, and to 4 minutes 6 seconds at the end of the third lap.

On the fourth lap, the main group was controlled by MATRIX POWERTAG holding the leader's Green Jersey. However, they gradually moved into a chase motion, and by the fifth lap, they began to cooperate with other teams to chase the two riders in front. The time gap was 3 minutes 43 seconds going into the 6th lap and the last 3 laps to go. The peloton led by the TERENGGANU POLYGON CYCLING TEAM and JCL TEAM UKYO, started chasing hard, with a time gap of 3 minutes 22 seconds with two laps to go. Lastly, the gap was shortened to 1 minute 52 seconds and the main group got into the last lap with 1 minute 30 seconds.

The two riders worked together to escape from the opening lap, but just after the final lap, Carter BETTLES (VICTOIRE HIROSHIMA) attacked and made a final breakaway at the front alone, at which point Kevin MCCAMBRIDGE (TRINITY RACING) dropped out. 
 A chase by the main group fell just 18 seconds short, and BETTLES (VICTOIRE HIROSHIMA) took the stage win for the first time with a dramatic breakaway that will go down in the history of the event.
 The best Japanese rider was OKA Atsushi (JCL TEAM UKYO) in 8th place overall. KOJIMA Naoki (TEAM BRIDGESTONE CYCLING) defended the Red Jersey (KOM).

Carter BETTLES (VICTOIRE HIROSHIMA)
“First of all, I would like to say thank you very much. I did not know that I had a win until about 200m to go when I could see the finish.
It is my first TOJ and very important race in our team. Today, I was looking forward the escape and felt good, but you have never known. I knew we were with the chance on one lap to go. I just went as hard as I could. And I am so happy to have the stage win.”

Luke LAMPERTI (TRINITY RACING)
“It was really a good day for the team. We had Kevin, very strong rider in a break. I was able to win the bunch sprint overall. We wanted one guy in a break, but we didn’t specifically say Kevin, but we had a few guys who could go in a break. Kevin ended up in it and after the race he says it was really a hard day.”

KOJIMA Naoki (TEAM BRIDGESTONE CYCLING)
“Today two-breakaway was very strong, so things did not go as planned for me. But I still had a chance to get one point for the third place of KOM, so I worked with my teammates to defend it.”