The Irish U23 team is down to just one rider - Archie Ryan - for the final stage of Tour de l'Avenir tomorrow, Sunday. An epic day on stage 8 today, with a big summit finish, saw the field decimated. Of the 163 riders that started the race last Thursday, only 80 riders remain for tomorrow's final stage.
The fact the Irish team is now down to just one rider is a massive blow as all of the team had ridden out of their socks in support of Ryan since the race started. Darren Rafferty and Dean Harvey had also represented Ireland up the road in two breakaways, yesterday and on stage 2. The team has also been hit by crashes since the race started.
Today Ryan put in a fantastic ride on the second big mountain stage. He was the only rider in the field able to match the accelerations of stage winner, and now race leader, Cian Uijtdebroeks (Belgium). Those two pulled clear - with Johannes Staune-Mittet (Norway) - on the final climb of La Toussuire.
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The trio dropped the rest of the select group with 12km to go to the finish. They stayed together until 2.5km to go when Uijtdebroeks attacked and Ryan went with him, as Staune-Mittet drifted backwards.
Ryan was then beaten to the stage win in a two-up finish, with Uijtdebroeks winning his second consecutive stage and claiming the race lead. Ryan - who also put in a brilliant ride on the Col de la Madeleine finish yesterday for 5th - moved up to 5th overall today, from 9th this morning.
And with another very hilly stage to come tomorrow, he has a great chance of making the final podium. However, as things stand he will be on his own as the rest of the Irish team are out of the race. Darren Rafferty was forced to abandon today after falling ill while Dean Harvey was among 12 riders outside the time limit; the 19-year-old missing the cut by just 1:03.
Adam Ward was one of three riders - along with two Slovakians - to finish just inside the time limit today but all three were disqualified. The reason for that was not clear at the time of writing.
Even before today's losses for the Irish team, Liam Curley had crashed out of the race on stage 1 while Kevin McCambridge had been forced out due to illness before the start of stage 6.
The Irish team were by no means the only ones to suffer today as many other teams lost riders. Some other nations also have only one or two team members left.
There were 114 riders still in the race at the end of yesterday's stage but this evening only 80 remained. Today, nine riders did not start the stage, 10 riders didn't finish and 12 were outside the time limit, as well as the three disqualifications, which followed two disqualifications yesterday.
