The Spaniard dispossessed Britain’s Blackmore and dominated Belgium’s Widar on the final climb to take the CIC yellow jersey.
He had stayed in touch with the best on the first high altitude finish in La Rosière on Wednesday, taking third place overall behind Britain’s Joseph Blackmore and Belgium’s Jarno Widar.
But the final climb to the resort of Les Karellis eliminated Joseph Blackmore, the previous leader, and caused Belgian climber Jarno Widar to stumble again. He will now probably have to put all his hopes on the Colle delle Finestre, the scarecrow at the top of which the final finish of the Tour de l’Avenir will be judged on Saturday in the Italian Piedmont.
In the meantime, the leader is a Spaniard, who until now has been a bit like the third man, and his name is Pablo Torres, only 18 years old (he was born in November 2005)! He has real mountain potential, as evidenced by his second place in the last Giro Next Gen (the Giro d’Italia U23) behind a certain Jarno Widar, with whom he hopes to turn the tables this time around. It’s a talent that hasn’t escaped the notice of scout Javier Matxin, who has already signed him up to the UAE team’s reserve squad.
Piedmont finale
Nothing is decided yet. But Pablo Torres has already put in a convincing display by isolating himself over the last six kilometres of the tough climb to Les Karellis, where those in the group of backpackers who set off on the first slopes leading to the Iseran (2770 m) were caught one after the other, including the most resilient of them all, Denmark’s Tobias Svarre, who was overtaken only in the last three kilometres.
The numerous breaks in the gradient towards Les Karellis clearly put Joseph Blackmore in a difficult position and it was clear that the battle for overall victory would now turn into a duel between Pablo Torres and Jarno Widar. The Belgian, who had missed out a little at La Rosière, seemed to blunt him again, or at any rate gave him some current limits, all relative. But the rigours of the Colle delle Finestre (18km at an average gradient of 9%, the last eight of which are unpaved), which concludes the race on Saturday, give him a major advantage, especially as the margin separating the two frontrunners (31 seconds) leaves plenty of room for suspense.
In the meantime, the peloton of U23 riders will enter Italy on Friday for the 5th stage via Mont-Cenis before sliding into the Valsusa for the last fifty kilometres without difficulty, until the finish in Condove, the end of the first of the two stages in Piedmont.
