Archie Ryan may have missed the all-important breakaway on yesterday's opening stage of Ronde de l'Isard (2.2U) but the 20-year-old Irishman was in good form today, and made gains, during a split stage.
His Jumbo Visma Development team won the TTT this morning and then on the short uphill afternoon stage - run off in very wet conditions - Ireland's Ryan proved one of the very strongest. He has shot up the general classification as a result, with three stages remaining in the U23 race in France.
In this morning's TTT - some 22.5km starting and finishing in Bagnères-de-Bigorre - Ryan and his team claimed the stage victory by 26 seconds from Groupama-FDJ's development team. Trinity Racing were 3rd at 30 seconds.
In the afternoon road stage, which was effectively a 25.2km hill climb, a breakaway went clear with Spanish 19-year-old Samuel Fernández (Equipo Amateur Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) proving the sole survivor from that group and winning the stage.
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Behind him, the main field split to pieces and a select group pulled clear, which caught all of the early breakaway men apart from the stage winner Fernández. Ryan was in that group, which was led him by highly fancied French 19-year-old Lenny Martinez (Equipe continentale Groupama-FDJ).
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🎬 Revivez la 3ème étape dès la 45ème Ronde de l’Isard avec la victoire de Samuel Fernandez Garcia à Gavarnie-Gèdre ! pic.twitter.com/yWHTlrTyH4— Ronde de l'Isard (@RondeIsard) September 29, 2022
On the finish line Martinez was just 11 seconds down on Fernández, with three other riders from the select group finishing on the same time as the Frenchman. Ryan, who once again showed his climbing prowess, finished the stage in 8th place and lost eight seconds to Martinez as the select group split a little in the final push to the finish line.
Those two results today by Ryan, has moved him up more than 30 places in the general classification to 14th overall. He is now the best-placed rider of those who missed the key breakaway on yesterday's opening stage. It gained over 10 minutes, on a wet and windy day, meaning Ryan will find it very hard to win this race overall barring major incident.
The breakaway on the opening stage contained three of this team mates and one of them - Johannes Staune-Mittet - won the stage to take the yellow jersey. The Norwegian, who was 2nd overall at Tour de l'Avenir - is still in yellow after today's racing.
He has has 34 seconds on Enzo Paleni, with Reuben Thompson 3rd overall at 1:17; both of those riders part of the Equipe continentale Groupama-FDJ team. However, while Ryan is 14th overall, because he missed the stage 1 breakaway that gain over 10 minutes he is now 10:11 off the race lead and over four minutes off 13th overall.
With plenty of climbing to come - including a summit finish on Saturday atop Goulier Neige - Ryan still has plenty of time to move into the top 10 overall. However, he had come into this race with designs on winning it, especially having won a stage at the recent Tour de Slovakia and also finishing 4th overall at Tour de l'Avenir.
While his hopes of overall victory, or even a place on the final podium, now look firmly out of reach, he will fancy his chances of taking another win on Saturday's stage.
