By Shane Stokes
Following on from his superb performance in the recent Tour de l’Avenir, where he took second on a stage and finished fourth overall, Archie Ryan is now set to line-out with Jumbo Visma’s World Tour team.
The 20-year-old has been riding for the Jumbo Visma Development team for the last three seasons and his starring for its World Tour squad is confirmation of his continued progress.
He will line out on Tuesday in the Tour of Slovakia in a team that also includes Johannes Staune-Mittet, who also rides for the development team and was 2nd overall at Tour de l’Avenir.
The 2.1-ranked race represents a significant step-up for Ryan, which is made possible by UCI rules allow development team riders to guest with the World Tour team during the year.
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He was originally due to do so in the Volta Limburg Classic on April 2nd, saying at the time he said he was looking forward to the slot.
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“I haven’t raced with the World Tour guys before, so it’s going to be a brilliant experience,” he said in March. “I can’t wait. Last year I was supposed to do the Ruta del Sol, but couldn’t (due to a knee injury). This new UCI rule is brilliant, because it gives us so many great opportunities to learn.”
Jumbo-Visma is one of the top teams in world cycling, winning the Tour de France this year with Jonas Vingegaard.
Ryan’s stellar Tour de l’Avenir in August was doubtlessly important in securing the guest slot. He accepts that he will be playing a support role there.
“I’m just excited to get racing again, and to do it with the WorldTour boys is pretty cool,” he told stickybottle on Monday. “It should be a really nice experience. The aims are to help out in the lead outs for our sprinter and then on the harder days to just race it and see what I can do, either for the team or for myself. The stages aren’t so hard so it will be interesting.”
That race begins on Tuesday with a seven kilometre time trial in Bratislava, and concludes on Sunday. Ryan will then aim big in the Ronde de l’Isard, a prestigious under 23 race beginning on September 28th and running until October 2nd. He finished eighth overall in the event two years ago.
“With L’Isard I’ll be going for the GC win, to be honest. This race is a big goal of mine so I’ll really be targeting the GC. The parcours are really good for me so I’m looking forward to it.”
The race was won by Ireland’s Philip Deignan in 2004. Ryan recently inked a new one year contract with the Jumbo-Visma Development Team and, all going to plan, will step up to the WorldTour level after that.
