Archie Ryan looks on course to take his first classification win in a pro race after holding onto the young rider jersey on stage 3 at Tour of Slovakia today. The 20-year-old Irishman won yesterday's stage, moving up to 5th overall, and also had a few goes during today's 214.8km stage from Detva to Spišská Nová Ves.
Ryan's Jumbo Visma team took up the pace setting on the climbs several times today in a bid to try and take the race lead. However, the QuickStep-Alpha Vinyl team of yellow jersey Josef Černý defended it well and just about kept the Czech rider at the top of the standings.
While there was no shortage of climbing today, those climbs were not hard enough to split the field to pieces. The finale featured only modest climbing, meaning a much bigger group that expected stayed intact to contest the finish.
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In the final 20km, repeated attacks were launched off the front, with Ryan getting into the thick of it at times, though none of the moves managed to stick and a group of 60 riders contested the sprint finish.
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With two left handers inside the final kilometre, Jumbo Visma expertly positioned their riders at the front, with Loe van Belle letting a gap open at the front on the last corner, allowing team mate Koen Bouwman and Luca Colnaghi (Bardiani-CSF-Faizanè) open a small gap.
Bouwman sprinted flat-out from the last corner with Colnaghi in his wheel, finishing in that order; the Dutch rider collecting Jumbo Visma's second stage win in two days after Ryan's brilliant win yesterday.
Bouwman, who won two stages in this year's Giro, also got a 10-second bonus for his win today, which moved him up four places to 3rd overall, within three seconds of Černý. That meant Ryan dropped one place to 6th, though he still leads the young riders classification; by seven seconds from Abel Balderstone (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA).
The race concludes tomorrow with a 182km stage from Levoča to Košice and while there are a couple of climbs early in the day, the terrain looks unlikely to split the field significantly.
