Denmark had not waited for Jonas Vingegaard’s triumphs in the Tour de France to reveal many of its new talents in recent years in the Tour de l’Avenir, particularly in the early days of the race. This momentum was confirmed on the first stage of the 2023 edition starting from Morbihan with the success of Anders Foldager in La Gacilly at the end of a stage that was well run (45.3 km/h) from the Grand départ in Carnac.
Anders Foldager, 22 years old and already winner of a stage in the Giro d’Italia U23 in the spring, took control at the end of the eight hundred metre steep climb that led to the finish line of the best survivors of the breakaway that had a lead of over four minutes and managed to keep a small gap (5 seconds) at the top of the final ramp. The Dane was ahead of Italy’s Villa and the Breton rider from the French team, Pierre Thierry, who was particularly enterprising in front of his home crowd in Morbihan, even though he tried in vain to break away on the penultimate lap.
The Tour de l’Avenir is therefore off to a good start and, although the second stage is not difficult in terms of terrain, it is long: 195km between Nozay (Loire-Atlantique) and Chinon (Indre-et-Loire) plus the twelve kilometres of the fictitious start, which is an unusual distance for the least experienced U23 riders.
