Ireland's Dillon Corkery and Ben Healy made the 17-man select group at Tour de l'Avenir today when the field split to pieces in the crosswinds, which lasted for about 30km.
The main field was shredded as the Dutch squad, winners of yesterday’s TTT, and the Belgians put numbers on the front during that crosswind section during the 153.4km stage 3 from Château-Thierry to Donnemarie-Dontilly.
Corkery and Healy made the cut when the race exploded and
a 17-man group formed at the front. At that point the peloton split into six
main groups, with plenty of riders scattered out the back.
The Irish team had played their cards well early on the stage as Adam Ward, the former Irish junior champion, attacked and spent much of the stage in a four-man breakaway.
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While Ward and those he was with were eventually caught, his presence up the road meant the pressure was off his team mates back in the bunch until the big picture started in the final third of the race.
Just as the breakaway, which had built a maximum gap of
five minutes, was being caught with 45km to go, the race moved onto a stretch
of about 30km of crosswinds.
The breeze and the pressure on the front soon saw the
main field split into six groups. In very short order a gap of just over one
minute had grown between the first and sixth group on the road.
And though the gaps were small initially, the continued crosswinds and the power up front saw the leaders gradually continue to build their advantage.
As the 17 leaders – including the impressive Irish duo of
Corkery and Healy – plugged away up front, some of the groups behind them began
to merge.
Soon the leaders – including yellow jersey Mick van Dijke (20) of the Netherlands - were being chased by about forty riders at 40 seconds, followed by the remains of the main field at 1:20. That chasing group of about 40 men included Irish rider JB Murphy.
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With the Italians and the Spanish both missing the front
move, they were chasing behind. Baby Giro winner Juan Ayuso, the 18-year-old
Spanish rider who has already made his debut for World Tour team UAE Team
Emirates, was among those busy in the chase.
That effort on the front of the second group was an impressive one and it began to peg back the leaders. The gap was closed to within 20 seconds at one point, as the front of the race passed through the finish line to go out onto the final 10km loop.
While there were plenty of attacks from the lead group,
it did not split until the final 900m climb to the finish line.
Marijn van den Berg (22) of the Netherlands proved best
up the climb and won the stage, with the first four all finishing on the same
time. Two of the Belgians - Arnaud de Lie and Stan Van Tricht - were 2nd and 3rd
with yellow jersey van Dijke in 4th.
Some 27 seconds covered the men in the select group on
the line, from the winner to 17th place on the stage. Corkery was 12th and
Healy 14th, both at just 12 seconds.
The large chasing group was 1:06 down on the line having
lost ground in the last 10km. It was a day of significant damage, with the last
rider finishing 27½ minutes down.
The Irish team combined really well to make sure Healy
and Corkery were in the front group; a great ride by both riders.
JB Murphy finished just slightly off the back of the chasing group – a strong day on an epic day – and he placed 50th on the stage at 1:17. Liam Curley was 90th at 3:05 and Ward, after his breakaway efforts, was 116th at 9:58. Kevin McCambridge of the Irish team was 143rd at 13:24 after being taken down in a crash just before the crosswinds battle began.
Healy, who was 10th in the prologue TT last Friday, is now back up to 8th overall, some 1:32 down on yellow jersey van Dijke.
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