Team Ireland has a formidale team at the Tour de l’Avenir starting tomorrow, Saturday – Liam O’Brien (Lidl Trek Future Racing), Ronan O’Connor (Team Skyline), Seth Dunwoody (Bahrain Victorious Devo), Jamie Meehan (Cofidis), Adam Rafferty (Hagens Berman Jayco) and Dean Harvey (Martigues Sport Cyclisme Payden-Rygel).
Combined, they are the best national team ever in the race; the hardest and most prestigious stage race on the international U23 calendar. We’ve ranked the chances of the Irish riders, one-by-one, in a piece available at this link.
Dunwoody and Rafferty have already won stages this year at Giro Next Gen. O’Brien and Meehan have excelled on the big mountains at Giro Ciclistico della Valle d’Aosta-Mont Blanc (2.2U), placing 4th and 6th overall.
Meehan has just become a World Tour rider, with Cofidis, while O’Connor and Harvey are quality riders who can also take their chances over the next week.
So in the hardest U23 race of the year, the one all young riders want to represent their country in, what awaits the Irish?
Tour de l’Avenir 2025 | Le Route
The race opens with an uphill 3km prologue – to Tignes 1800 in the French Alps – the last 1km of which is at 7.7 per cent gradient, below.
Sunday’s 188.6km stage 1 to Saint-Galmier features a late cat 2 climb (15.4km at 3.3 per cent) and should trim down the field rather than blow it apart, below.
Monday’s stage 2 – some 136.7km to Vitry-en-Charollais – could be a bunch sprint. And the same could be said for next Tueday’s stage 3 – some 158.6km to Châtillon-sur-Chalaronne. Both profiles below.
There follows stage 4, next Wednesday; some 110.2km to Val-Saran. It could also suit the sprinters.
And then we’ve got the first big one; next Thursday’s 121km stage 5 finishing on the Tignes 2100 cat 1 climb, some 26.2km averaging 4.8 per cent. That is the third major climb of the day on a stage with 3,900m of elevation gain. Stage profile below.
The race concludes next Friday with a split stage; a 41.6km stage 6a road race to La Rosière in the morning. The route, below, is comprised of the HC climb of Colle San Carlo – some 10.3km at 10 per cent, followed by the cat 1 Col du Petit Sanit-Bernard, 13.2km at 5.6 per cent, and a 2.2km ascent, at six per cent, to finish. That will be a savage race.
The short and very sharp morning road race is followed in the afternoon by stage 6b, a 10.3km mountain TT to La Rosière. It averages 6.6 per cent, though the opening 5.5km is between 9 and 10 per cent. Route below.
