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Anthon Charmig is third in the opening stage of the Tour de Kyushu

The three-day Tour de Kyushu started today in Japan. Yesterday, the opening criterium, Kokura Castle, took place, where Astana Qazaqstan Team rider Anthon Charmig secured a third-place podium finish.

Today, Charmig was once again at the front and finished third. Four riders broke away in the second half of the first stage, gaining a small advantage over the main peloton. The gap couldn’t be closed, and the four leaders contested the stage win. Emilien Jeannière claimed victory, ahead of Lukas Nerurkar and Anthon Charmig.

The peloton finished 10 seconds behind, with another Astana Qazaqstan Team rider, Ivan Smirnov, winning the sprint from the group for 5th place.

“After I had my bad crash back in August in Ciruito de Getxo I was really disappointed, so when I was finally back on the bike I was really motivated to prepare well for this month of racing in October. I was happy to show some good form in Le Tour de Langkawi and I feel even better here in the Tour de Kuyshu. Today’s stage was a hard one with lots of attack all day long. Especially Ivan Smirnov did a really good job of being with me the whole day and covering attacks with me. On the final climb we went full gas and a group of 4 riders got away and stayed to the finish line, where I had to settle for the third place. I’m looking forward to the last two stages. I feel super strong on the climbs, so I have to look for possibilities on the climbs to come and especially Stage 3 looks good to me. But I also have to say that Ivan is looking strong and in a possible sprint he will have a good card to play”, – said Anthon Charmig.

Photo credit: @SprintCycling