Tadej Pogacar Wins 2023 Tour de France Saitama Criterium; Japan’s Atsushi Oka Finishes the 17-Lap Race in 8th

The Yomiuri Shimbun

13:16 JST, November 6, 2023

SAITAMA — Tadej Pogacar won the 2023 Tour de France Saitama Criterium in Saitama on Sunday.

The 25-year-old Slovenian road racer, who won the 2020 and 2021 editions of the Tour de France, won in his debut at the Japan event where world’s top cyclists competed.

Pogacar and 51 other cyclists completed 17 laps of the 3.5-kilometer course around JR Saitama-Shintoshin Station during the main race. Sepp Kuss, a 29-year-old U.S. road racer who won the Spanish Vuelta this year, finished second. Japan’s Atsushi Oka, 28, finished eighth.

The Saitama event started in 2013, and this year’s edition was organized by the Saitama Sports Commission. The Yomiuri Shimbun was the event’s official media partner.