The pro road racing season is almost over–but across the world, quite literally, there’s still a few big ones to end things off. The men and women–including Calgary’s Annabelle Thomas and Vancouver’s Sidney Swierenga are racing in the Netherlands for the Eneco Tour. Sainte-Lucie-des-Laurentides, Que.’s Nick Zukowsky is racing in China at the Tour of Guangxi lake. Gaspé, Que.’s Pier-André Côté racing in Italy the very cool race, The Veneto classic, and there was also a big one day in Japan that uses some of the 1990 road worlds circuit for its course. Finally, national TT champ, Nadia Gontova of Richmond, B.C. is racing the Chrono des Nations TT.

The 2026 Japan Cup

American champ Quinn Simmons saved his best for the final two laps of the Japan Cup, attacking alongside Ben Healy before beating the Irish rider in the sprint to the line on Sunday. The Lidl-Trek rider has had a solid year, winning another national championship jersey, a win at the Tour Auvergne – Rhône-Alpes–but he’s also been at the front in all kinds of big races. He was close to a dub at the Tour de France after being away for over 150km, finishing second on Stage 4. And if you watched the elite men’s road worlds you saw the punchy rider in the thick of it.

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As far as his win today, Simmons and Healy had been among the strongest riders all day, and once they broke clear, the race was theirs to lose. The pair steadily built a gap of around two and a half minutes, leaving the chasing group with little hope of catching them.

Simmons on his win

“When you take the start and Ben is here, I think everyone knew we were the two strongest in the race,” Simmons said. “Luckily the course is selective enough that we can make the difference and have a fair battle between us. I was quite confident in my sprint, so I just knew I had to make it over the climb the last time.”

Lidl-Trek also got a strong performance from Julien Bernard, who finished sixth. Like so many of the pros these days, Bernard has some strong lineage–his dad is French legend Jean-François Bernard.

Bernard had been part of the early breakaway of 17 riders, ensuring Lidl-Trek had someone up the road while the team waited for the race to develop. When Simmons bridged across with a strong group, the Frenchman helped set up the winning move.

Lidl-Trek with two-pronged attacks

With two Lidl-Trek riders in the mix, the team took turns attacking before Simmons made the winning move with Healy on the climb with two laps remaining.

“With Julien in the front, that’s probably the key aspect,” Simmons said. “We joke that he’s Mr Japan – he always performs here. With both Sammy and Matteo covering all the moves behind, I basically had to do nothing until it was the hard moment. With only four, we never missed one move.”

“This was just the perfect moment for him to go and not to wait,” former pro and Lidl-Trek directeur sportif. Bernie Eisel said.

The finale

Once Simmons and Healy were clear, the American could follow his rival’s efforts without wasting energy. He knew the final climb was the last major obstacle before the finish, and after getting over it with Healy, he had the sprint he wanted.

“I wasn’t planning to be in the break, but there were 17 guys in the front, so I needed to be part of it,” he said. “Then we decided to attack, one time Quinn, one time me, to make the other guys a bit more tired. Quinn made the decisive attack on the climb with Ben. For me it was more of a holiday.”

Bernard also had a little extra motivation to get the job done. “We know Quinn is quite fast in the sprint, so I’m happy we finished the season with another victory at the Japan Cup,” Bernard said. “We booked a good restaurant in Tokyo to celebrate, and now Quinn has a reason to pay tonight.”