Tour de France riders entertain Japanese fans before Sunday criterium
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Michal Kwiatkowski shows off his karate moves at the 2019 Saitama Tour de France criterium(Image credit: Getty Images)
Egan Bernal wore his Tour de France yellow jersey at the 2019 Saitama Tour de France criterium (Image credit: Getty Images)
Jumbo-Visma at the team presentation of the 2019 Saitama Tour de France criterium (Image credit: Getty Images)
Egan Bernal and Chris Froome line-up for the 2019 Saitama Tour de France criterium presentation(Image credit: Getty Images)
Chris Froome (Team Ineos) is back in action at the 2019 Saitama Tour de France criterium(Image credit: Getty Images)
Jakob Fuglsang leads Astana at the 2019 Saitama Tour de France criterium(Image credit: Getty Images)
Romain Bardet with his AG2R-La Mondiale teammates at the 2019 Saitama Tour de France criterium(Image credit: Getty Images)
Primoz Roglic enjoys a joke at the 2019 Saitama Tour de France criterium(Image credit: Getty Images)
Matteo Trentin seems happy to play at karate at the 2019 Saitama Tour de France criterium(Image credit: Getty Images)
Riders practice their karate at the 2019 Saitama Tour de France criterium(Image credit: Getty Images)
Cyclists prove they are no black belts at the 2019 Saitama Tour de France criterium (Image credit: Getty Images)
Mitchelton-Scott wave to the crowds(Image credit: Getty Images)
Egan Bernal signs an autograph(Image credit: Getty Images)
The Saitama fans go wild for Egan Bernal(Image credit: Getty Images)
Jakob Fuglsang signs an autograph(Image credit: Getty Images)
The riders pose with their karate masters(Image credit: Getty Images)
Yukiya Arashiro, Lilian Calmejane, Michal Kwiatkowski, Matteo Trentin and Marcel Kittel show their karate skills(Image credit: Getty Images)
After the football-darts, the match was decided on bikes (Image credit: Getty Images)
Jakob Fuglsang, Romain Bardet, Primoz Roglic and Egan Bernal formed a football-darts dream team (Image credit: Getty Images)
Romain Bardet takes a shot(Image credit: Getty Images)
Egan Bernal plays football-darts(Image credit: Getty Images)
Egan Bernal races on the static bike(Image credit: Bettini Photos)
2019 Tour de France winner Egan Bernal (Image credit: Bettini Photos)
Chris Froome (Team Ineos)(Image credit: Bettini Photos)
Egan Bernal takes a shot(Image credit: Bettini Photos)
Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) was a late addition to the Saitama Criterium after Alejandro Valverde pulled out(Image credit: Bettini Photos)
Chris Froome (Team Ineos) speaks on stage(Image credit: Bettini Photos)
The eve of the Saitama Tour de France Criterium was marked by the usual spectacle of professional cyclists dipping their toes in Japanese culture, with karate on the menu on Saturday along with – somewhat less traditionally – football-darts.
After riding with local children in the morning, the riders attended the team presentation in Saitama’s Super Arena in the afternoon, where they were called on stage in front of a crowd of guests and fans.
Michal Kwiatkowski, Matteo Trentin, Marcel Kittel Lilian Calmejane and Yukiya Arashiro then donned white robes for a demonstration of the martial art of karate. After being taken through a couple of the defensive and offensive moves, they all punched through a sheet of polystyrene.
"I think I’m ready now for the real brick," exclaimed Kwiatkowski, to the crowd’s delight.
Next came football darts, a game where you kick a soft football at a giant velcro dartboard. Egan Bernal, Primoz Roglic, Romain Bardet, and Jakob Fuglsang were up against a selection of players from the Urawa Red Diamonds team.
With Bardet – socks pulled up over his knees a la Thierry Henry – and Roglic both hitting trebles, the riders beat the footballers at their own game as the Pet Shop Boys’ Go West, a tune heard on terraces throughout Europe, rang out across the arena.
The footballers then tried to beat the riders at their own game, going head to head in a 500-metre sprint on a static bike. An under-saddled Fuglsang and an over-geared Bardet were roundly beaten but Roglic and Bernal showed no mercy and peddled at full pelt to turn it around.
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Click or swipe through the gallery above for a selection of photos from the event.
😁 Smiles, Fun, Sharing moments with the fans. That was the program for today at the #SaitamaCriterium. ⏪ Throwback to the Media Day.😁 Des sourires, de la joie et des moments de partage avec les nombreux fans au programme aujourd'hui au #SaitamaCriterium. pic.twitter.com/qtoBYEadQPOctober 26, 2019
Patrick is a freelance sports writer and editor. He’s an NCTJ-accredited journalist with a bachelor’s degree in modern languages (French and Spanish). Patrick worked full-time at Cyclingnews for eight years between 2015 and 2023, latterly as Deputy Editor.
