In with the big boys: Movistar was just one of the world's best teams that Philip Lavery faced at the Vuelta a Burgos over the past five stages, with the young Dubliner keeping his head and holding his own.
Philip Lavery has brought to a close the first assignment of his trial period with French professional team Cofidis by battling very well on the queen stage of the Vuelta a Burgos in Spain today, Sunday.
With seven categorised climbs to negotiate, including a savage climb to the summit finish at Lagunas de Neila after 170km, Lavery came home a respectable 15:21 down on winner Nairo Quintana, the Movistar Colombian rider who has been the world's best climber this year.
The stage winner also took overall honours, with Lavery finishing 64th of the 94th finishers in the general standings; a very decent ride in a race that was a massive step up from anything he had ridden before.
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Lavery did well on the opening four stages of the race, only losing any significant time on Friday's stage 3 when he relinquished 3:44 to stage winner Jens Keukeleire (Orica-GreenEdge).
Aside from that, the 22-year-old Dubliner who has been riding with French club AC Bisontine to date this season, relinquished smaller time gaps and only did so as the peloton fragmented towards the end of the stages, which finished either at the top of small climbs or featured small ascents in the finales.
His best result was 26th in yesterday's bunch sprint. However, with the race packed with some of the very best riders in the world, Lavery has clearly been able to hold his own and has certainly not looked out of his depth at this level.
Those factors bode very well for the remainder of his trial with the team to the end of the season, especially in races where he may be able to get up the road when the parcours suit his aggressive punchy style better.
Lavery is hopeful of performing well for the rest of the season and securing a contract with the team, or possibly another similar outfit for next year; with riders on trial securing positions with other teams a common occurrence.
The fact pro teams can only take three trial riders, or stagiaires, from August 1st each year to the end of the season underlines the extent of his achievement in even securing this spell with Cofidis.
It also suggests his plans to join the paid ranks are already at a well advanced stage and barring disaster he looks set to secure a contract for 2014.
From all at stickybottle, we'd like to wish Philip the very best of luck for the next few months as he makes his way into the toughest end of the sport.
Vuelta a Burgos, Spain 2.HC, August 7th - 11th
Stage 5: Comunero de Revenga to Lagunas de Neila (170km)
1 Nairo Alexander Quintana Rojas (Col) Movistar Team 4:26:57
2 David Arroyo Duran (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA 0:00:23
3 Ivan Basso (Ita) Cannondale Pro Cycling 0:00:25
4 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:00:48
5 Andre Fernando S. Martins Cardoso (Por) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA 0:01:08
6 Paolo Tiralongo (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:01:18
7 Giampaolo Caruso (Ita) Katusha 0:01:18
8 Mikel Landa Meana (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 0:01:24
9 Sergei Chernetckii (Rus) Katusha 0:01:44
10 Cayetano José Sarmiento Tunarrosa (Col) Cannondale Pro Cycling
11 Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 0:02:00
12 Mikael Cherel (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:02:15
13 José Herrada Lopez (Spa) Movistar Team 0:02:53
14 Mikel Bizkarra (Spa) Euskadi 0:03:24
15 Robinson Eduardo Chalapud Gomez (Col) Colombia 0:03:30
16 Francesco Failli (Ita) Vini Fantini-Selle Italia 0:05:04
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17 Giovanni Visconti (Ita) Movistar Team 0:05:13
18 Steve Bekaert (Bel) Burgos BH-Castilla y Leon 0:05:49
19 Andrey Zeits (Kaz) Astana Pro Team
20 Marcos Garcia (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA 0:05:58
73 Philip Lavery (Irl) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:15:21
Final General Classification
1 Nairo Alexander Quintana Rojas (Col) Movistar Team 19:29:22
2 David Arroyo Duran (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA 0:00:23
3 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:00:55
4 Giampaolo Caruso (Ita) Katusha 0:01:14
5 Andre Fernando S. Martins Cardoso (Por) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA 0:01:16
6 Mikel Landa Meana (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 0:01:24
7 Sergei Chernetckii (Rus) Katusha 0:01:29
8 Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 0:01:53
9 Cayetano José Sarmiento Tunarrosa (Col) Cannondale Pro Cycling 0:02:07
10 Ivan Basso (Ita) Cannondale Pro Cycling 0:02:17
11 Mikael Cherel (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:02:20
12 José Herrada Lopez (Spa) Movistar Team 0:03:30
13 Francesco Failli (Ita) Vini Fantini-Selle Italia 0:05:15
14 Giovanni Visconti (Ita) Movistar Team 0:05:42
15 Robinson Eduardo Chalapud Gomez (Col) Colombia 0:05:54
16 Steve Bekaert (Bel) Burgos BH-Castilla y Leon 0:06:19
17 Nicolas Edet (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:06:25
18 Mauro Finetto (Ita) Vini Fantini-Selle Italia 0:06:35
19 Jonathan Monsalve (Ven) Vini Fantini-Selle Italia 0:06:53
20 David De La Cruz Melgarejo (Spa) Team NetApp-Endura 0:07:17
64 Philip Lavery (Irl) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:20:20
(94 finishers)
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