The Irish team are off to a very strong start at the Tour de l'Avenir; an aggressive opening stage getting the top U23 riders in Irish cycling into the thick of battle with the best young riders in the world. Above, Matt Teggart in the breakaway on the 134km road to Loudéac (Photo by Morgane Bezannier)
Irish cyclists off to strong start at Tour de l'Avenir
Matt Teggart and Mark Downey have gotten the Irish U23 team off to a great start at the Tour de l'Avenir.
Rás stage winner and yellow jersey Teggart went clear in a very dangerous 11-man breakaway today.
It would break clear around 25km into the 134km opening stage starting and finishing in Loudéac.
The escape managed to get a gap on the first climb of the day, forming a group that contained some very heavy hitters.
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Russian Pavel Sivakov, who has already won the Baby Giro this year, was present as was top young Colombian climber Egan Bernal.
Their efforts would put over four minutes between them and the peloton.
However, with plenty of firepower – not to mention fresh legs and ambition – in the main field, they were never going to be let simply ride away.
Slowly but surely the gap would come down after peaking at 4½ minutes.
And though the peloton was breathing down the necks of the escape in the closing stages it looked like they would stay away.
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Top, Ryan Reilly mid-stage. Irish cyclists Mark Downey and Michael O'Loughlin after a tough day at the office.
One man among the leaders who was not so confident of holding the gap was Kasper Asgreen.
The Danish rider recently became the U23 European TT champion. And he decided to attack from the breakaway close to the finish.
As the other escapees, including Matt Teggart, were caught well inside the final kilometre Asgreen was motoring away out front solo.
He got a small gap and went into TT mode, just about holding off the peloton to win the stage and take the first yellow jersey of this race.
But while Teggart was disappointed his efforts were not rewarded, his old club mate from Banbridge CC Mark Downey was waiting to pounce.
The road and track rider got up for sixth in the bunch finish, landing him in 7th place on the stage.
That was a very decent result for Downey. And with Teggart riding well and leading the climbers’ classification equal on points with Frenchman Valentin Madouas.
Of the other Irish cyclists in the race, all finished safely in the main bunch.
Daire Feeley was 56th, Michael O’Loughlin 89th, Daragh O’Mahony 101st and Ryan Reilly 104th. Teggart would finish near the back of the bunch, in 118th, after his breakaway heroics.
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