The Irish U23 team are well placed at Tour de l'Avenir after four days of action and as the key stages are now getting closer, with Archie Ryan joining a late attack on today's stage 4.
The 153.7km stage from Civray to La Trimouille - the field was trimmed back to 100 riders as some crashes and the speed took their toll.
A small breakaway group - with attacked after the day's main escape group was caught - just about managed to hold off the main field. That early breakaway was caught with over 20km to go and after a series of attacks were launched from the peloton about 35km from the finish; ramping up the pace and thinning out the main field.
Adam Holm Jørgensen (Denmark) was in the winning three-man group and put in a very long and powerful final sprint to claim the stage ahead of Jordan Labrosse (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes) and Petr Kelemen (Czech Republic).
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The bunch finished just four seconds behind the stage winner, with Baptiste Vadic (Pays de la Loire) taking the bunch sprint for 4th place. Stage runner-up Labrosse has taken the race lead.
Ryan joined a dangerous looking move of about eight riders with about 10km to go, in what was an aggressive finale. However, while it looked like they may stay clear, a number of the riders were not working and the move was reeled in about 3km from the finish.
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Of the Irish team, Ryan, Darren Rafferty and Dean Harvey finished in the bunch, in 29th, 52nd and 9th respectively. Kevin McCambride was in a small group at 1:21, finishing 116th, after he got caught behind a crash with about 11km to go. Adam Ward, who also got caught behind a crash and his group never got back on, placed 130th in a group at 7:37.
Ryan, Rafferty and Harvey are now among a large group of riders all four seconds down on new race leader Labrosse ahead of tomorrow's stage 4, some 142.8km from Sainte Sévère sur Indre to Chaillac. It features a small kick up at the finish, though it should not do major damage.
Tuesday's stage 5 will be an important one for the general classification; a 27.9km TTT into Saint Vallier. The lumpier terrain begins on Wednesday and while the climbs are modest on that 124.6km race into Oyonnax a cat 3 crested just 6.5km from the finish may shake things up a little.
After the rest day on Thursday comes a big test on Friday's stage 7 - some 175.4km from Thonon-les-Bains to Saint-François-Longchamp including the summit finish HC climb of 14.6km averaging 7.6 per cent.
