Ireland's Archie Ryan has won the queen stage of Ronde de l'Isard, extending his brilliant late season run of form. The 20-year-old Irishman also claimed a stage at Tour de Slovakia the week before last and was 4th overall at Tour de l'Avenir in late August.
On the final climb to the finish line today, Ryan (Jumbo Visma) proved too strong for the others in the select group; surging forward to take a brilliant victory by 15 seconds from his team mate, and yellow jersey, Johannes Staune-Mittet. Ryan has also taken the climbers' classification jersey and moved up overall.
Fernando Tercero (EOLO-Kometa U23) placed 3rd today at 17 seconds with GC dangerman Reuben Thompson (Equipe Continentale Groupama-FDJ) in 4th at 22 seconds. Mathys Rondel (VC Pays de Loudeac) was 5th at 29 seconds. And after the top five, the next riders were two minutes down.
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Today's 131km stage 5 took the field from Carbonne to Goulier Neige, with the race finishing atop a cat 1 climb of 9.5km averaging 7.9 per cent. Once again Ryan proved when the racing was at its hardest he was at his best; a pattern also very much in evidence as the Tour de l'Avenir unfolded in late August.
Ryan paced the front group up much of the final climb, in defence of the yellow jersey. And when 3rd placed overall Thompson attacked on the climb, Ryan went after him to mark him. The Irishman then dropped back to the group to pace Staune-Mittet. That work saw the group close up on lone leader Thompson, with Ryan then having the legs to take the stage win despite all his pulling on the final climb.
While the young Irishman had gone into Ronde de l'Isard (2.2U) this week with designs on winning the event outright, he missed a large breakaway that gained over 10 minutes on the wet and windy opening stage.
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He had three of his team mates in that move, including Norwegian Staune-Mittet, who won the stage. The time gained by the breakaway men on stage 1 effectively consigned Ryan to domestique for Staune-Mittet in recent days. The Irishman played a key role in keeping his team mate in the yellow jersey yesterday when Equipe Continentale Groupama-FDJ's Thompson and Lenny Martinez went on the attack.
And having performed that task confidently, Ryan got his chance to target the stage win today after he and Staune-Mittet rode very well out front to ensure the yellow jersey stayed within the team. Ryan now moves up two places to 7th overall.
More to come.
