Second on a stage and fourth overall last year, Archie Ryan and the rest of the Irish team began their Tour de l’Avenir campaign on Sunday aiming for a standout performance.
Ryan’s overall result 12 months ago in what is regarded as the under-23 Tour de France was the best by an Irish rider, highlighting his talent, but his 2023 has been a complicated one. He was sidelined from competition for almost the entire season due to the reoccurrence of a knee injury, lining out in just one race before Sunday’s opening stage in France.
He was fourth last Sunday in the Gran Premio Sportivi di Poggiana-Trofeo Bonin Costruzioni in Italy, an encouraging showing considering his months out of training and racing.
Ryan finished in the main bunch on stage one of the Tour de l’Avenir, six seconds behind a five-man breakaway led in by the Danish rider Anders Foldager. Fellow Irish riders Jamie Meehan and Odhran Doogan were also in the main peloton.
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Kevin McCambridge was caught behind a crash and finished 3.50 back. Patrick O’Loughlin, who replaced an ill Aaron Wade in the team, finished 8.31 in arrears while Dean Harvey was ill and lost 12.29.
Ryan said he is keeping an open mind about what is possible in the race, but his natural competitiveness is also clear.
“To be honest with you, I’m just going in trying to put no pressure on myself,” he said. “Obviously I want to go to win. At this level I know I can do it, but with the year I have had it is a big question mark. An eight-day stage race is a whole different ball game.
“I’d like to do as well as I can on GC [general classification], to really fight for the podium and see how good I can go, but I just don’t want to put any expectation on it because I could just crack one day. We’ll really try for GC, try and get up there on the hillier stages, but we just need to get through the first couple days first, to try not to lose any time.
“We’ll try to limit any time losses to just the TTT [team time trial], hopefully, and then see what we can do when we hit the hills and mountains. Overall I’m really excited and ready to give it a good crack with the lads.”
Monday’s stage to Chinon is flat to undulating, with the team time trial following on Tuesday. The key mountain stages follow after that and, as long as his lack of racing this year doesn’t hinder him too much, will provide a platform for Ryan to try to match or exceed his performances of last year.
Meanwhile, Rory Townsend continued what has been his best season to date with a fine fifth place on Saturday. The Bolton Equities Black Spoke rider was to the fore in the Druivenkoers-Overijse race, finishing as part of a five-man chase group sprinting for third. The 1.1-ranked event was won by the Belgian Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Dstny).
Elsewhere in Belgium, Lara Gillespie was a solid 16th in the 1.1 GP Oetingen by St Fuellien event, her first of several races guesting with the WorldTour UAE ADQ team. She is part of the development team attached to that outfit but has been asked to step up to the higher-level team due to her solid results this year.
She was part of a large group racing for fifth place, 25 seconds behind the solo winner Simone Boilard (St Michel-Mavic-Auber 93).
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In Germany Sam Bennett was in action on Sunday in the Bemer Cyclassics Hamburg, but was forced to withdraw early on due to stomach problems. Ryan Mullen was the only Irish finisher.
At home the final round of the National Road Series and the national youth road championships were cancelled on Saturday due to Storm Betty. It is unclear if the races will be rescheduled.
The national masters championships went ahead on Sunday but was affected by controversy when a strong breakaway of approximately 10 riders was sent the wrong way in the masters 50 event. While the race in Moyvalley, Co Kildare, was neutralised for a while, that stoppage was insufficient for those to regain contact with the peloton. The issue was then compounded when those riders were later instructed to leave the race. Several former national champions lost out as a result.
Races were won by Paul Kennedy (M40), Craig Sweetman (M50), Lionel Hart (M60), Suzanne White (W40) and Orla Hendron (W50).
