Archie Ryan has once again climbed in the select group at Sazka Tour (2.1) in the Czech Republic today when he held onto the gains he had made in recent days and even moved up one place overall.
He ended the four-stage race in 6th place; a great result considering the World Tour teams like Bora-hansgrohe, Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux and BikeExchange-Jayco were in the race, as well as a whole host of ProContinental teams.
Ryan and his Jumbo-Visma Development team mate, Johannes Staune-Mittet, were both in the select group today in the finale of the 179.9km stage from Šumperk to Šternberk. They took it in turns to attack and counter attack in a bid to get clear and win the race overall.
However, a number of other teams - including the Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux squad of race leader Lorenzo Rota - marked them closely, ensuring the Irish-Norwegian duo were unable to break clear.
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That was an impressive performance by Ryan, especially on the finishing circuit today; a 7km loop with a nasty 1km each time. However, despite the difficulty of that finale, he was one of the animators of the action, after also being in contention for the stage victory on the first climbers' day, on stage 2, when he finished 7th.
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At the end of today's stage 4, some of the early breakaway men managed to survive out front, with Alexis Guerin (Team Vorarlberg) winning just four seconds ahead of Michael Kukrle (Elkov-Kasper). Race leader Rota then proved strongest of the 10-man select group in the sprint to the line, taking 3rd some 28 seconds behind winner Guerin.
Anthon Charmig (Uno-X) was 4th with Max Poole (Development Team DSM) 5th, Italian road race champion Filippo Zana (Bardiani-CSF-Faizanè) 6th, Kevin Colleoni (BikeExchange-Jayco) in 7th and Frederik Wandahl (Bora-hansgrohe) 8th.
Ryan was in that small group with Rota, placing 12th on the stage and also finishing at 28 seconds behind stage victory Guerin; a very strong ride by the Irishman. The 20-year-old is now back in great form after injury and illness and can look with confidence to the remainder of the season.
However, Ryan was also left to rue what might have been after he was on the wrong side of a 14-second split in the select group at the end of stage 3, which saw him slip from 5th to 7th overall. Without that time loss he would have finished in 3rd overall.
Rota took the overall victory by six seconds from Charmig, with Colleoni and Zana 3rd and 4th, both at eight seconds. Team mates Staune-Mittet and Ryan were 5th and 6th in the final GC, at 14 and 20 seconds respectively.
