And two more! Already winner in Saint-François-Longchamp for the first of the three Alpine stages, Cian Uijtdebroeks confirmed his superiority in the resort of La Toussuire where he passed the second layer…. This time, he took the yellow jersey for good, which he had been deprived of the day before because of a twenty second penalty for having received a bottle in the last kilometres.
This slight setback didn’t seem to affect him too much, maybe because the Belgian rider, despite his young age (only 19 years old), had taken the measure of his opponents and kept all the confidence in his possibilities, which are obviously very promising. Especially because the gap to his final goal was small (11 seconds) compared to the difficulties to come.
After an impressive solo performance in Saint-François-Longchamp, the great Belgian hopeful kept only one competitor with him to win in La Toussuire, Irishman Archie Ryan, a small, energetic and catchy rider who showed great climbing skills.
For the rest, Cian Uijtdebroeks was able to count for a long time on the Norvegian Johannes Staune-Mittet, 3rd of the stage and now 2nd in the overall classification at 1’23”, to impose a prohibitive selection from the back on the final climb. Michel Hessmann, leader since the victory of Germany in the team time-trial, has again offered a good resistance, but it wasn’t enough, far from it (7th of the stage, he is now 3rd overall at 2′) which doesn’t alter the nice impression left on this Tour de l’Avenir.
The French team, on its side, was not able to reverse the trend after its failure in the first mountain stage. “We saw that we were beaten in the pedal race and that it was over for the general classification, so we try to put on a good show to win some stages”, said Romain Grégoire, who tried to get a second victory after the one in Oyonnax, by anticipating between the bottom of the col de la Madeleine and the climb to La Toussuire, where he was nevertheless overtaken.
As for Lenny Martinez, after a “day without”, he did better (6th) than the day before, without being able to follow the pace of the best. At least, the French climber is back in the Top 10, but at a good distance (8th at 7’1”), whereas Alex Baudin has left the Top 10 after having completely lost his footing (23’58”) in a stage that has left no less than 34 riders on the side of the road between the withdrawals, the non-starters, the out of time and the disqualified.
On the threshold of the last day, there are only 80 riders left in the race, a little bit less than half of the 162 riders who started ten days ago in La Roche-sur-Yon. Without any doubt, the hardest part is done and the new yellow jersey of Cian Uijtdjebroeks has the best chances to join the prestigious palmares of the Tour de l’Avenir, even if nothing can be confirmed as the last stage is coming up with the col de l’Iseran at 2770 meters of altitude before the final climb to the village of Villaroger.
