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The celebs of the Tour de France met the general public on Saturday forward of the Saitama Criterium, participating in conventional Japanese calligraphy, a drawing contest and extra in a spectator-friendly occasion.
Tadej Pogačar made his debut within the occasion alongside Mark Cavendish (Astana), Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma), Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) and Chris Froome (Israel-Premier Tech).
In response to the organisers’ press launch, the Vuelta a España champion, Sepp Kuss, confirmed a aptitude for Japanese calligraphy (shūji), drawing the katakana characters for the colour pink whereas Tour de France mountains classification winner Giulio Ciccone drew the image for the mountains. “Did I get it proper? Did I get it fallacious? I do not know, nevertheless it was arduous,” Ciccone mentioned.
Mark Cavendish turned within the crowd-favourite piece of paintings within the drawing contest, drawing a cartoon model of Saitama’s emblem, a bit of inexperienced dragon, whereas Pogačar drew a bullet practice.
Guillaume Martin, attending with Cofidis teammate Victor Lafay, revealed his connections to Japan.
“My father taught aikido for forty years”, Martin mentioned. “He lived in Japan whereas he realized this martial artwork. I really practised it myself for ten years after I was youthful.”
He took a tour of the island earlier than arriving in Saitama. “There was a little bit of every thing. We went for fairly a couple of hikes and pleasure rides. We visited temples and samurai properties. And Japan is all the time an journey for the style buds!”
On Sunday, riders will compete within the Saitama Criterium, 17 laps of a 3.5 km course broadcast from 6:45 am on Eurosport.