Jamie Meehan (CC Étupes) has overcome a nasty crash, during which he face-planted the road while descending, to make more progress in Ronde de l'Isard (2.2U).
The 20-year-old was taken arguably the best international result of his career after climbing very strong during the five-stage event, which is one of the hardest and most prestigious U23 races in the world.
"On the third stage I had a bad crash on one of the descents," said Meehan of Friday's 153km from Bagnères-de-Luchon Saverdun. "I landed on my face and I was cut and had road rush everywhere.
"But luckily I got back into the group, so that stage was really hard," he said of finishing 37th, in the remains of the peloton some 31 seconds down in stage winner Sam Maisonobe (Vendée U).
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Saturday's penultimate stage finished on the HC Plateau-de-Beille; a climb of 16km at 7.7 per cent. Dutch 22-year-old Darren van Bekkum of Visma-Lease a Bike Development took a brilliant win, by 51 seconds over his nearest rival.
Meehan was in 16th place, of the 100-rider field, and finished alone some 4:07 down on the stage winner. That saw him move up three places to 16th overall, some 9:49 down on race leader Bekkum. Going into yesterday's final stage - some 134km from Pamiers to Saint-Girons, with a 16km climb midway - Meehan was determined to try and move up further overall.
"I hoped to maybe sneak away in a breakaway and gain back a minute or two," he said. "But we started off on a 2Km climb and I followed the first one or two moves and after that I was cooked."
After those early efforts, Meehan worked on setting up his Swedish team mate and stage 1 winner, Edvin Lovidius, for the intermediate sprints as he was leading that competition. On a small climb at around 40km into the stage, Meehan said he thought he was going to be dropped.
"I had horrible legs for the first half of the race," he said. "I just felt like I couldn't push. There was a few times I was worried I might go out of the group, just on those small climbs. Eventually when we hit the main climb of the day I just instantly let the group go and settled into my own pace.
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"Edvin paced me up it for a bit. And eventually I was telling him 'you can go harder'. And then it got to the point where he told me to go on myself because he couldn't do anymore. So I just kicked on and rode myself into the climb. And by the top I'd caught up with the Tudor train.
"They were pacing it for their GC rider, so I actually went past them and then the last 4k, where it flattened out, they caught back up to me. And I just rode with them, helped them ride in."
Joseph PIDCOCK remporte la 5ème et dernière étape à l’arrivée à Saint-Girons ??♂️ pic.twitter.com/1ydO3g8sxF
— Ronde de l'Isard (@RondeIsard) May 5, 2024
Joseph Pidcock wins the final stage yesterday
Meehan was 26th on the stage, in a group 4:43 down on stage winner Joseph Pidcock, the British Trinity Racing rider who won the final stage of Dornan Rás Mumhan in Kerry last month. That resulted moved Meehan up three places to 13th overall, some 14:32 behind overall winner van Bekkum of Visma Lease a Bike Development/
"Going into the race, or two weeks ago, I might have said the top 15 was the goal," Meehan said. "But then after the French Cup result (where he placed 2nd) the legs were good. And the team manager said the top 10 here was the goal, so that's where the goal was.
"It wasn't too bad to finish 13th, just shy of top 10. But I would have liked a bit more out of the race. I just never really found great legs. I was going okay, but it just never felt really good. But I managed to just kind of hang in there and claw back time when I could."
