Adam Rafferty was one of the Irish riders trying to make things happen but it was a frustrating a costly day for the Irish U23 team at Tour de l’Avenir (Photo: Quentin Joly)

The Irish U23 national team at the Tour de l’Avenir has suffered a setback after a near 20-strong breakaway went clear on stage 2 today, Monday, and made it to the finish with 2½ minutes on the peloton.

A group of that size riding off up the road without any of the Irish riders in it would make for a bad day under any circumstances. However, with contenders for the final podium in the Irish team – and even overall victory if the planets aligned – today’s outcome was significant, for all the wrong reasons.

The composition of this team – with world class climbers, TT riders, a sprinter and breakaway men – means much is expected of them this week, not least from themselves. And not only did they lose time to some key rivals today, they also missed a chance to put themselves into a great position for the rest of the week.

Had Liam O’Brien or Jamie Meehan, for example, made it into the group, and gained such a significant amount of time, they may have one foot on the final podium already, even with riders like Paul Seixas (France), Jarno Widar (Belgium) and Jakob Omrzel (Slovenia) in this field.

However, on today’s stage – some 136.7km from Saint-Symphorien-sur-Coise to Vitry-en-Charollais – O’Brien tried several times to get across to the first section of the large breakaway when it got clear. But having proven one of the strongest riders in the hilliest U23 stage races this year, the French team man-marked him, ensuring he went nowhere.

Rafferty also tried repeatedly to make it into the move – which took more than half the stage to form. However, he had finished 7th in the opening TT, sat 4th overall this morning and also won a stage at Giro Next Gen in June. And, like O’Brien, his efforts were closely marked and closed down repeatedly.

Initially, a five-rider group got clear and in the attacking, chasing and counterattack that followed – for about the first 70km of the stage – the front group eventually numbered 19. And when they reached the finish, they had 2:27 in hand on the peloton.

Great Britain took a second stage win in as many days, via Elliot Rowe. The 19-year-old is a first-year U23, riding for Visma Lease a Bike Development this season and did very well today. He was one of the five riders away for 70km but still proved fastest in the kick to the line.

He won ahead of Louis Leidert (19) of Germany – a team mate of O’Brien’s at Lidl Trek Future Racing – and Luxembourg’s Alexandre Kess. Best placed of the Irish was Dunwoody, taking 3rd in the bunch sprint for 22nd on the stage.

Ireland’s O’Brien, Rafferty and Meehan were also in that bunch, 2:27 down; finishing 38th, 82nd and 131st respectively. Unfortunately, Dean Harvey was a non-finisher today.

Maxime Decomble (France), one of the breakaway men, now takes the yellow jersey from team mate Seixas. He is six seconds up on Simon Dalby (Denmark) and Jack Ward (Australia), equal on time in 2nd and 3rd.

Dalby is one of the real general classification dangermen who got into the breakaway today. Aged 22 years and in his second season with Uno-X Mobility, he was 6th overall in this race last year.

He took a stage and 2nd overall at the UCI Nations Cup stage race, Course de la Paix Grand Prix Jeseníky in Czech Republic this year, and was 10th overall at Tour of Oman – riding against World Tour teams – at the start of the season.

Best placed of the Irish now are Rafferty and O’Brien; 19th and 25th at 2:14 and 2:22 respectively. Today was a disappointing day for the Irish, but there is a long way to go.