The longest stage of the Tour de l’Avenir 2023 (195km plus 12km to the actual start) was open to the sprinters and they didn’t miss a beat.
It was close, very close, but the verdict was in favour of Canada’s Riley Pickrell at the expense of Poland’s Fratczak, who perhaps made the mistake of cutting in too early.
However, the Poles found more than a consolation with the yellow jersey now on the shoulders of Michal Pomorski, the beneficiary of his presence in the breakaway who had maintained a slender advantage of 6 seconds on the first day.
It has to be said that his predecessor, Danish rider Andres Foldager, winner of stage 1, had embarked on a long breakaway in the company of young Alexandre Vinokourov and for longer with Slovenian rider Alijaz Turk as his only support. An operation that was clearly doomed to failure. This rather rare situation of a yellow jersey being launched in an off-road operation obviously had consequences, as Foldager was to pay for his efforts and finished very late, more than 7 minutes behind in a final that was also marked by breaks following a crash.
The third stage between Vatan and Issoudun, in the Indre region, should reshuffle the cards as it is contested in the form of a 26.5km team time trial.
