Archie Ryan has taken Ireland's best ever general classification result at Tour de l'Avenir. The 20-year-old also scored 5th and 2nd on the two hardest mountain stages - on Friday and Saturday - and had another got today on the final stage.
However, while he moved up again in the general classification, from 5th this morning, the final climb of today's stage would perhaps have needed to be longer and harder for the young Irishman to maximise his gains.
In the end, today, a six-man group from the early breakaway stayed clear to mop up the top six placings on the stage. Ryan was in the select group of about a dozen riders behind that escape. And while he attacked from it inside the final kilometre, and really strung out the group, the time gaps were only in seconds.
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However, as some of the top 10 this morning did not make the select group today, Ryan moved up one place overall to 4th in the final general classification. He also took 9th on today's stage after his attack inside the final 600m.
Today's stage - some 134.1km from Bessans to Villaroger - was won by Lorenzo Milesi of Italy after he put in a really strong attack from the breakaway on the final 4.8km climb to the finish. He powered his way up the cat 3 climb to win by 37 seconds from Alec Segaert (Belgium), with Ewen Costiou (France) in 3rd a further two seconds back.
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The select group was just over three minutes down on the winner, with Romain Gregoire (France) the first of those riders over the line, to take 7th place at 3:01. Harold Lopez (Ecuador) claimed 8th place after he and Gregoire matched Ryan's late attack and then passed him at the finish.
Ryan was 9th on the day, at 3:04, with Lenny Martinez of France rounding out the top 10 a further three seconds back. Race leader, and double stage winner, Cian Uijtdebroeks (Belgium) was in the select group today and wrapped up overall victory.
He won the final yellow jersey by 1:23 from Johannes Staunte-Mittet (Norway), with Michael Mesmann (Germany) completing the podium at 2:00. Then came Ireland's Ryan, in 4th overall at 2:49.
Before today, Ireland's best overall finish on Tour de l'Avenir was Stephen Roche's 6th place back in 1981, the year the Dubliner turned pro and also won Paris-Nice. More recently, in 2018, Eddie Dunbar finished 8th overall in the race, which is regarded as the U23 version of the Tour de France.
Ryan was on his own today as the rest of the Irish team had been taken out of the event as illness, crashes and fatigue took their toll on Liam Curley, Darren Rafferty, Adam Ward, Dean Harvey and Kevin McCambridge. However, the Irish team rode very strongly in support of Ryan before the final three were forced out yesterday.
Lots more to come.
