The Irish team has gotten off to a strong start at Tour de l’Avenir, with Ben Healy recording a top 10 placing in the prologue TT.
Irish elite and U23 road race champion Healy placed 10th in the 5km TT in Charleville-Mézières in northern France today, as the nine-stage race got underway.
The stage victory, and first yellow jersey of the race widely regarded as the U23 Tour de France, was won by Søren Wærenskjold (Norway). The 21-year-old, who usually rides for Uno-X Pro Cycling Team, recorded a time of 5:52.
That was just one second faster than his trade team team mate Johan Price-Pejtersen (Norway), with Mick van Dijke of the Netherlands, who has signed a three-year contract with Jumbo Visma, rounding out the podium four seconds down on the winner.
Advertisement
Ben Healy, who usually rides for Continental team Trinity Racing, placed 10th at nine seconds in what was a fiercely contested opening stage. Irish U23 TT champion Healy was beaten by just one second earlier this year for the TT stage win at the Baby Giro, so his time today was of no surprise.
Related News
Irish rider Kevin McCambridge placed 53rd in today's TT, some 24 seconds down on the stage winner while Dillon Corkery was 56th at 25 seconds. Medal winner at the junior track Worlds and Europeans, JB Murphy, was 65th at 27 seconds.
Adam Ward placed 100th on the stage, at 36 seconds, while Liam Curley - winner of the Newcastle West Stage Race two weeks ago - placed 154th at 53 seconds.
Tomorrow's stage 1 takes the riders 161.2km from Charleville-Mézières to Soissons, over a mainly flat route but with some short sharp climbs on the course, including a cat 3 with 10km to go.
The field this year is absolutely stacked; a reflection of the generational change underway in pro cycling at present. Four of the top 10 riders on today's opening stage already have WorldTour contracts.
Spain had two of its riders just outside the top 10 today; Carlos Rodriguez of Ineos Grenadiers and 18-year-old Juan Ayuso, who has just won the Baby Giro is is racing for UAE Team Emirates.
Topics
