Archie Ryan wins uphill sprint to take first professional win in Slovakia

Young Irish rider Archie Ryan had a breakthrough result in the Tour of Slovakia on Thursday afternoon, winning an uphill sprint to take the hilly second stage of the race.

The 20-year-old clocked up his first international victory as a senior rider, beating Mauri Vansevernant (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team), Lorenzo Fortunator (EOLO-Kometa) and a number of others with a powerful uphill surge into Banska Stiavnica. He had attacked with nine others with six kilometres remaining.

The victory sees the Wicklow rider leap 34 places in the overall classification to fifth.

“The team rode really well so I had an easier day, thankfully,” he said at the finish. “The climb was super tough, a lot of teams were trying to make it really, really hard and get rid of the yellow jersey. So it was a tough day out there.

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“I am not really one for the cobblestones, so it was a bit interesting. But it was super hard, so it suited me. And it was quite steep, so again it suited me. The boys did a great job to put me into the bottom of the climb, so it is all thanks to them, really.”

Ryan’s result is all the more impressive as he is contesting the 2.1-ranked event in a guest slot with the Jumbo-Visma WorldTour team. He normally rides for the under-23 development team attached to the squad, but was given an invite to race with the WorldTour wing in the event after taking second on a stage and a superb fifth overall in last month’s Tour de l’Avenir.

The Jumbo-Visma WorldTour team is one of the best in professional cycling, winning the Tour de France in July with Jonas Vingegaard. Ryan’s success will increase the likelihood of him being offered a contract with the squad in the future.

Thursday’s stage of the Tour de Slovakia suited Ryan’s uphill talents perfectly. It contained six categorised climbs, with the final three being category one ascents.

Ryan’s showing will add to the questions around Cycling Ireland’s decision not to send a team to the world road-race championships in Australia this month.

The federation took the decision due to a lack of budget, but Ryan and Darren Rafferty (Hagens Berman Axeon) are both in storming form and could have fared strongly in the under 23 event.

Rafferty, 19, finished 13th in the Tour de Wallonie on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, veteran Irish rider Greg Swinand took a superb win in the UCI Gran Fondo world championships in Italy on Thursday, racing to first in the individual time-trial for men between 55 to 59 years of age.