Tour de Slovaquie may not have exactly unearthed the talents of Archie Ryan but the 20-year-old Irishman comes out of the five-stage race with his reputation enhanced and having proven himself as a winner on the pro scene in Europe.
While injuries have had a big impact on his progress in the last couple of seasons, Irish cycling fans have always been aware of his potential as a world class climber. And having stayed injury-free this year he excelled in the Tour de l'Avenir as part of the Irish team last month and on Thursday took a fantastic uphill stage victory in Slovakia. It was a huge achievement on his debut with the Jumbo Visma World Tour team.
His results over the last month have served to confirm his talent but they also came after a troubled period in his fledging career and they draw a line under that injury-hit challenging time. Ryan can now look forward to the remainder of this season, and the years to come, with great confidence, starting with Ronde de l’Isard the week after next.
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He went into today's final stage in Slovakia - a relatively flat 182km from Levoča to Košice - in 6th place overall and just 10 seconds down on race leader Josef Černý (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl). However, while Ryan had won stage 2 and his team mate Koen Bouwman won yesterday, they were unable to wrestle the race lead from QuickStep-Alpha Vinyl; the Belgian team riding strongly as a unit to defend yellow.
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Today's final stage looked tailor-made for a bunch sprint though team mates Jasper Haest and Peter Schulting of VolkerWessels Cycling Team had other ideas. Their breakaway efforts survived all the way to the finish where 23-year-old Haest won from Schulcting (35). The two team mates enjoyed a joint victory salute and Haest also took the points classification from Ethan Vernon (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl).
Vernon was beaten in the sprint for 3rd today by his lead-out man Michael Mørkøv. That cost Vernon the points classification win as he finished equal on points with Haest.
Ryan finished safely in the main pack today, which was just 13 seconds down on the two Dutchmen out front. The result ensured there was no change at the top of the general standings; Černý winning overall by six seconds from team mate Mauri Vansevenant, with Bouwman 3rd also at six seconds.
Ryan ended the race in 6th overall at 13 seconds and won the young rider classification by seven seconds from Abel Balderstone (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA).
