It has been a season of breakthroughs for many of the Irish riders on the U23 national team, but their form and their luck was not what it might have been in the biggest stage race of the year, Tour de l'Avenir.
Though they animated the racing with attacks, and took top 10s on four of the eight stages, it is a mark of their record that the week was a disappointing one for them. Liam O'Brien and Jamie Meehan have been the stand-out climbers for Ireland this year, but it didn't quite happen for them over the last week.
Meehan's campaign was hampered by a crash and back injury. And though O'Brien has gone toe-to-toe on the major mountains this season with the likes of Jarno Widar, who won the two hilliest stages for Belgium in the last 48 hours, the Cork man's legs didn't produce the watts he was hoping for this time around.
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Seth Dunwoody put in a strong showing in the sprints and his 3rd, 6th and 7th placings on stages confirmed his status as one of the best sprinters on the U23 scene at present. A first-year U23, when he returns to this race next year he should be even stronger and will surely add a Tour de l'Avenir win to the Giro Next Gen stage he took in June.
Adam Rafferty, who also won at Giro Next Gen this year, was full of racing this week and placed 7th in the uphill prologue TT on the opening day, when O'Brien was 8th. Rafferty was also on the attack with Meehan on stage 4, when they were very unlucky not to come away with something for their efforts.
Ronan O'Connor, Ireland's former junior road race champion and the Shay Elliott Classic winner this year, was making his debut for Ireland at this level. He worked strongly for the team this week and that should be important for his continued development.
Dean Harvey was most unfortunate to crash on stage 1. Though be battled on admirably, he suffered a tear to his calf and was forced out of the race the following day; a huge shame for him and a big loss to the team.
At the start of the week, Team Ireland went into this race with general classification contenders in O'Brien and Meehan and with stage win potential through the team. Much was expected of them based on their results this year.
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But, as is often the case in cycling, when they wanted a big performance it didn't happen. And, make no mistake, a 'big performance' for this team meant stage wins and a general classification top five or better.
On today's split stage - a brutal 41km mountain road race in the morning followed by an afternoon TT uphill for 10.3km to La Rosière - the best Irish performances came from Rafferty and O'Brien.
Rafferty was 18th in the TT - some 2:32 down on stage, and overall, winner Paul Seixas (France). In the morning road race, won solo by the impressive Widar, O'Brien and Meehan were 24th and 26th, at 5:20 and 7:19 respectively. Overall, O'Brien was Ireland's best finisher, in 20th at 11:31.
On the final day today, the victory by Seixas in the stage 6b TT saw him take the final yellow jersey, having also won the opening stage TT. He won overall by 40 seconds from Widar, with Norway's Jørgen Nordhagen 3rd at 44 seconds.
Seixas took the yellow jersey from his team mate, Maxime Decomble, who had held the race lead since he made the winning breakaway on stage 2. However, the split stage today was a day too far for him. He haemorrhaged time in the TT, slipping from the race lead to 5th in the final GC, at 1:20.
Next up for our U23s in the green of Ireland is the European Road Championships which take place on a hilly course in France in October.
Highlights stage 6a
