The Irish team and the French went to battle for the climbers’ jersey and Ireland came out on top. Matt Teggart is into the polka dots at Tour de l’Avenir.
Matt Teggart in climbers’ jersey at Tour de l’Avenir
Up and coming Matt Teggart has seized the climbers’ jersey for Team Ireland at the Tour de l’Avenir.
He was equal on points at the top of the classification this morning and collected enough points to take it outright.
Today’s stage 2 took the riders 132.4km from Inzinzac-Lochrist to Bignan.
Teggart was in the 11-man escape that gained over four minutes on yesterday’s opening stage.
And while they were all caught, bar one rider, just before the finish line he collected climbers’ points along the way.
The An Post-Chainreaction rider – competing in the Team Ireland colours this week – was determined to take the jersey today. And after a great day he did so.
Starting this morning French rider Valentin Madouas was wearing the polka dots, with he and Teggart both on five points.
Another Frenchman Alan Riou and German Georg Zimmerman were 3rd and 4th on one point each.
Fabio Jakobsen (Holland) takes the sprint for victory at the end of stage 2 at the Tour de l’Avenir today.
There was only one minor climb to be tackled today. And with two riders up the road at the time, they mopped up the three and two points and offer for the first two riders over the top.
Back in the main field there was a battle between the Irish and French teams for the final point at the summit of the climb.
And it was the men in green who got upper hand. Teggart collected third place and the final point to move into the outright lead in the classification.
The stage would come down to a big bunch finish. And after his 7th place of yesterday, Mark Downey was on the prowl again.
He battled his way into the top 10-15 in the peloton with about 1.5km remaining.
But he would have several spokes ripped from his wheel after getting caught up in a crash and was out of the sprint.
He came home more than two minutes after the main peloton. But because his crash occurred inside the final 3km he was credited with the same as the peloton.
And like yesterday, all of the Irish riders finished in the main field.
Daire Feeley was 42nd, Teggart 64th, Daragh O’Mahony 71st, Ryan Reilly 79th, Michael O’Loughlin 111th and the stricken Downey in 131st.
The stage was won by Fabio Jakobsen (Holland) from José Álvaro Hodeg (Colombia) and Kristoffer Halvorsen (Denmark).
Kasper Asgreen of Norway, the U23 European TT champion, still leads overall. He was in the breakaway with Teggart yesterday.
He took flight late in the day on his own to win stage 1 by four seconds.
And he still leads overall by that margin from today’s 3rd placed rider Halvorsen, who won the bunch sprint for 2nd yesterday.
The next four stages in the race all feature just one cat 4 climb. But next Friday the course goes skywards.
On that 118.4km stage from Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc to Hauteluce-Les Saisies there are two cat 2 climbs in the first half of the course.
And the stage then concludes with a summit finish atop the cat 1 to Hauteluce Les Saisies. That epic finish is followed the final two stages, also in the high mountains.
The final stage on Sunday, for example, takes the riders up the HC Col de la Madeleine at the halfway point. And it concludes with another summit finish up the cat 1 Col du Mollard.
