While Archie Ryan has ridden very well in Europe this year every time the road kicked up, the young Irish rider has truly announced his climbing talents to the cycling world over the last three days at Tour de l'Avenir.
He was 5th on the summit finish on Col de la Madeleine on Friday and placed 2nd yesterday on another summit finish, on La Toussuire. Today, on the final stage of the race, he climbed in the small select group behind the breakaway, attacking the group in the final kilometre on the cat 3 climb to the finish.
That was enough to secure 9th on the stage, with Ryan moving up one place overall to 4th today. The race was won overall by stage 7 and 8 winner Cian Uijtdebroeks (Belgium). He claimed the final yellow jersey by 1:23 from Johannes Staunte-Mittet (Norway), with Michael Mesmann (Germany) completing the podium at 2:00.
Advertisement
Then came Ireland’s Ryan, in 4th overall at 2:49. Ryan put in an especially good ride yesterday when he was among three riders - with GC winner Uijtdebroeks and runner-up Staunte-Mittet - to ride away from everyone else in the select group with 10km remaining on the final climb.
And when Uijtdebroeks attacked with 2.5km to go, Ryan was able to match him as Staunte-Mittet slipped back. It was a performance that confirmed Ryan's status as the best climber in the race, bar Uijtdebroeks; a 19-year-old riding for the Bora-hansgrohe World Tour team.
Ryan (20), who rides for Jumbo Visma Development, had knee issues in 2020, which recurred last year and cost him the full season. However, with the help of his team he has come back to top form and his ride in France over the last 10 days represented a confirmation of the potential he has shown since his junior days.
After his ride today - though he was hoping to finish on the final podium - Ryan said he was really pleased to hold his place in the top five and even gain one slot. In reality, the final climb today needed to be harder to offer Ryan a proper opportunity to make serious gains in the general standings.
“I am really happy with the result, especially the general classification today,” he said. “It was just maintaining it, in a way. It was a good day today, I managed to position myself well all day.
“The finish climb to the end was pretty short and pretty shallow in the middle section, so it ended up being a small group sprint when the break stayed away.
"But I am really happy with the GC result. I can’t complain. If you told me before the race that I’d do that, I would have taken it, for sure. Before the race I wanted to be fighting for the podium, top five, so I hit that on the head, basically, which is really, really great.”
Related News
He also praised his Team Ireland team mates - Dean Harvey, Darren Rafferty, Kevin McCambridge, Adam Ward and Liam Curley - who rode in support of him. Ryan said their contribution and that of the Cycling Ireland staff on the race was "amazing".
"It has just been really, really cool to do it and be part of this great squad. I am super happy with the race in general, it was just brilliant,” he said.
Team manager, and former world champion on the track, Martyn Irvine, said he was really pleased with Ryan's performance. The race was not without ups and downs for the Irish team as Liam Curley was forced out after a double crash on the second stage and Kevin McCambridge had to abandon before the start of stage 6.
Yesterday, on the penultimate stage, Darren Rafferty was forced to abandon due to illness and Dean Harvey was among the riders who missed the time cut; just 1:03 outside that limit. While Adam Ward just made the cut, he was disqualified along with two Slovakian riders he was with.
While the team rode brilliantly in support of Ryan, the events of yesterday meant he went into today's final stage as the only remaining rider in the Irish team. The fact just 79 riders started the final stage today, of 163 who had started the event last Thursday week, underline just how hard the racing was.
Ultimately, Ryan's 4th place overall was a big day for Irish cycling as it was the best ever final GC result by an Irish rider on the nine-stage race regarded as the U23 Tour de France.
“I am very happy for Archie,” said manager Irvine. “We knew he would be the man in form and he had the skills and confidence and ability to back it up. From day one that was the plan, and he executed the plan.
"Obviously he would like to have been one or two steps higher here and there, but I think he’s satisfied with his ride. He’s proven he’s one of the best climber amongst his peers, and it’s just to help him get there.
“He did all the work himself, he is very professional. He ticks every box – looks after himself, eats, sleeps. Just everything…a top level professional bike rider. And that all paid off to give him a good performance today and this week.
“Obviously there was a flipside for the rest of the team,” Irvine added. “We had a bit of bad luck. There was sickness going through the race. We had some very long climbs that weren’t suited to our riders, and that caught us out yesterday. We had a bit of everything yesterday. We had lads outside the limit, some sick, and then on the flipside Archie getting second place on the stage.
“So it has been an emotional rollercoaster. But we are all here tonight, we are all pretty happy with the week’s work. And that’s it. It was great to work with the lads, every one of them was a pleasure to work with on my part.”
