Tour de L'Avenir 2009

frenchfighter

This famous race starts today and runs through to 13 Sep. 9 stages, 1,300 Km.

It is the 46th Edition and is only open to Under-23s on National Teams. This changed (in 2007 I think) as previously it was open to Under-25s riding on Trade Teams.

There are 18 National Teams participating, including two for France, 1 for GB and 1 Mixed team.
http://www.letour.fr/2009/TDA/COURSE/us/equipes.html

There are 6 riders for each country and the vast majority will be unknown to most people. Looking at the GB team, the name I am familiar with is Erick Rowsell. This guy has incredible talent - he raced my local crit series when he was 17 and finished top 5 in nearly every race he entered. He is only 19 but have a look at his palmares so far:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erick_Rowsell

Route map:


Notable past winners include Felice Gimondi (1964), Joop Zoetemelk (1969), Greg LeMond (1982), Miguel Indurain (1986), Laurent Fignon (1988), Johan Bruyneel (1990), and Denis Menchov (2001).

I don't think there is any live coverage, but if someone finds a link, I would be grateful if they post it up. Definitely will be looking at the results.

GroupOfOne MkII

For those who can't be bothered to click, GB team is:

Peter Kennaugh
Mark Christian
Luke Rowe
Erick Rowsell
Andrew Fenn
Johnny McEvoy

Looks pretty strong, hopefully Kennaugh can do a good ride, like in the Baby Giro.

Some very highly rated riders in this race who are moving upto the ProTou ranks next year (Guldhammer, Gretsch, Van Gaderen, Degenkolb, Ghyselinck) so be interesting to see how they fair and which riders outperform them, if any.

Alain Gallopin's son riding for France A, Albasini's younger brother riding for Switzerland and Peter Stetina who's got famous relatives too.

takethehighroad

From Lionel Birnie's Twitter

Tour de l'Avenir stage 1: Won by Julien Berard (France). Luke Rowe (GB) ninth at 1-48. McEvoy, Kennaugh, Rowsell also in the bunch.

frenchfighter

Today was 10 loops of a 13km circuit. Interestingly it didn't end in a bunch sprint. The two riders were out in front for 123km and had 2.25 advantage coming into the final loop.

Classement 1re étape :

1. Julien Bérard (FRA, France les 130 km en 2h58'28"
2. Romain Sicard (FRA, France A) m.t.
3. Dennis Van Winden (PBS, Pays-Bas) à 1'25"
4. Michel Kreder (PBS, Pays-Bas) m.t.
5. Sep Vanmarcke (BEL, Belgique) à 1'29"
6. Kris Boeckmans (BEL, Belgique) m.t.
7. Sander Maasing (EST, Estonie) m.t.
8. Luke Rowe (GBR, Grande-Bretagne) m.t.
9. Niki Ostergaard (DAN, Danemark) m.t.
10. Marko Kump (SLO, Slovénie) m.t.

Classement général :

1. Julien Bérard (FRA, France en 2h58'09"
2. Romain Sicard (FRA, France A) à 7 sec.
3. Dennis Van Winden (PBS, Pays-Bas) à 1'40"
4. Michel Kreder (PBS, Pays-Bas) à 1'44"
5. Steven Kruijswijk (PBS, Pays-Bas) à 1'47"
6. Sep Vanmarcke (BEL, Belgique) à 1'48"
7. Kris Boeckmans (BEL, Belgique) m.t.
8. Sander Maasing (EST, Estonie) m.t.
9. Luke Rowe (GBR, Grande-Bretagne) m.t.
10. Niki Ostergaard (DAN, Danemark) m.t.

Kléber

Watch Romain Sicard. He's a semi-pro with the Orbea team, the feeder for Euskatel. He won the 1.1 Subida al Naranco, a Spanish one day for climbers, ahead of Nuno Ribeira, Lopez Garcia and Sam Sanchez. He's handy at TTs and the mountains.

frenchfighter

138 flat kms to race today.

frenchfighter

2nd stage was a bunch sprint.

Classement 2ème étape :

1. Jean-Lou Paiani (FRA, France les 138 km en 2h58'23"
2. Kris Boeckmans (BEL, Belgique) m.t.
3. Michael Baer (SUI, Suisse) m.t.
4. Marko Kump (SLO, Slovénie) m.t.
5. Timofey Kritskiy (RUS, Russie) m.t.
6. Vojtech Hacecky (TCH, Mixte) m.t.
7. Troels-Ronning Vinther (DAN, Danemark) m.t.
8. Yannick Martinez (FRA, France A) m.t.
9. Julien Bérard (FRA, France m.t.
10. Sebastian Hans (ALL, Allemagne) m.t.

Classement général :

1. Julien Bérard (FRA, France en 5h56'32"
2. Romain Sicard (FRA, France A) à 7 sec.
3. Jean-Lou Paiani (FRA, France à 1'38"
4. Dennis Van Winden (PBS, Pays-Bas) à 1'40"
5. Michel Kreder (PBS, Pays-Bas) m.t.
6. Kris Boeckmans (BEL, Belgique) à 1'42"
7. Arthur Vichot (FRA, France A) m.t.
8. Michael Baer (SUI, Suisse) à 1'44"
9. Loïc Desriac (FRA, France à 1'45"
10. Nelson Oliveira (POR, Portugal) à 1'46"

Kléber

frenchfighter wrote:

2nd stage was a bunch sprint.

Not quite, Luxembourger Ben Gastauer took a flyer with 1km to and Paiani jumped with him, and then launched himself again close to the finish line to dump Gasauer and hold off the bunch by a bike length on the line.

frenchfighter

Really! That is pretty cool - I love those flyers.

frenchfighter

11 riders escaped at 4km. This was gradually whittled down to 2 who they got caught with 30km to go. A bunch sprint ensued and the Slovenian Kump took first place after 189km of racing.

Classement 3ème étape :

1. Marko Kump (SLO, Slovénie) en 4h38'55"
2. Andreas Stauff (ALL, Allemagne) m.t.
3. Kris Boeckmans (BEL, Belgique) m.t.
4. Timofey Kritskiy (RUS, Russie) m.t.
5. Luke Rowe (GBR, Grande-Bretagne) m.t.
6. Sep Vanmarcke (BEL, Belgique) m.t.
7. Nicolas Schnyder (SUI, Suisse) m.t.
8. Vojtech Hacecky (TCH, Mixte) m.t.
9. Blaz Jarc (SLO, Slovénie) m.t.
10. Geoffrey Soupe (FRA, France A) m.t.

Classement général :

1. Julien Bérard (FRA, France en 10h35'27"
2. Romain Sicard (FRA, France A) à 7 sec.
3. Kris Boeckmans (BEL, Belgique) à 1'38"
4. Marko Kump (SLO, Slovénie) m.t.
5. Jean-Lou Paiani (FRA, France m.t.
6. Dennis Van Winden (PBS, Pays-Bas) m.t.
7. Michel Kreder (PBS, Pays-Bas) à 1'39"
8. Nico Keinath (ALL, Allemagne) m.t.
9. Arthur Vichot (FRA, France A) à 1'42"
10. Loïc Desriac (FRA, France à 1'43"

takethehighroad

Am I right in thinking that Luke Rowe is still in touch on GC? And how good is he on the lumpy stuff?

jim one

TakeTheHighRoad wrote:

Am I right in thinking that Luke Rowe is still in touch on GC? And how good is he on the lumpy stuff?

He is better at punchy climbs I would say than for being a bunch sprinter.

frenchfighter

Yesterday Troels-Ronning Vinther and Peter Stetina counter-attacked with 20km to go.

Classement 4ème étape :

1. Troels-Ronning Vinther (DAN, Danemark) en 4h40'20"
2. Peter Stetina (USA, Etats-Unis) à 7 sec.
3. Yannick Martinez (FRA, France A) à 11 sec.
4. Marko Kump (SLO, Slovénie) m.t.
5. Andreas Stauff (ALL, Allemagne) m.t.
6. Timofey Kristkiy (RUS, Russie) m.t.
7. Vojtech Hacecky (TCH, Mixte) m.t.
8. Chris Barton (USA, Etats-Unis) m.t.
9. Michael Baer (SUI, Suisse) m.t.
10. Geoffrey Soupe (FRA, France A) m.t.

Classement général :

1. Julien Bérard (FRA, France en 15h15'58"
2. Romain Sicard (FRA, France A) à 7 sec.
3. Troels-Ronning Vinther (DAN, Danemark) à 1'26"
4. Marko Kump (SLO, Slovénie) à 1'38"
5. Jean-Lou Paiani (FRA, France m.t.
6. Dennis Van Winden (PBS, Pays-Bas) m.t.
7. Peter Stetina (USA, Etats-Unis) m.t.
8. Michel Kreder (PBS, Pays-Bas) à 1'39"
9. Arthur Vichot (FRA, France A) à 1'42"
10. Gabor Kasa (SRB, Mixte) à 1'43"

frenchfighter

Would be nice to see an GB rider in the top 10 before the end...

Classement 5ème étape :

1. Jonathan Castroviejo (ESP, Espagne) en 3h52'03"
2. Niki Ostergaard (DAN, Danemark) m.t.
3. Blaz Furdi (SLO, Slovénie) m.t.
4. Jacobus Venter (AFS, Mixte) m.t.
5. Guillaume Bonnafond (FRA, France A) m.t.
6. Loïc Desriac (FRA, France m.t.
7. Tejay Van Gaderen (USA, Etats-Unis) m.t.
8. Martijn Keizer (PBS, Pays-Bas) m.t.
9. Peter Kennaugh (GBR, Grande-Bretagne) m.t.
10. Evaldas Siskevicius (LIT, Mixte) m.t.

Classement général :

1. Julien Bérard (FRA, France en 19h08'10"
2. Romain Sicard (FRA, France A) à 1 sec.
3. Troels-Ronning Vinther (DAN, Danemark) à 1'26"
4. Blaz Furdi (SLO, Slovénie) à 1'32"
5. Guillaume Bonnafond (FRA, France A) à 1'34"
6. Loïc Desriac (FRA, France m.t.
7. Tejay Van Gaderen (USA, Etats-Unis) à 1'35"
8. Martijn Keizer (PBS, Pays-Bas) à 1'36"
9. Jean-Lou Paiani (FRA, France à 1'38"
10. Dennis Van Winden (PBS, Pays-Bas) m.t.

frenchfighter

First mountainous stage yesteday:


Classement 6ème étape :

1. Timofey Kritskiy (RUS, Russie) les 146 km en 3h33'54"
2. Romain Sicard (FRA, France A) m.t.
3. Tejay Van Gaderen (USA, Etats-Unis) à 22 sec.
4. Darwin Atapuma (COL, Colombie) m.t.
5. Rafael Valls Ferri (ESP, Espagne) à 28 sec.
6. Daniel Teklehaimanot (ERY, Mixte) à 36 sec.
7. Peter Stetina (USA, Etats-Unis) m.t.
8. Michel Kreder (PBS, Pays-Bas) à 42 sec.
9. Sergej Fuchs (ALL, Allemagne) à 46 sec.
10. Sergio Henao (COL, Colombie) à 49 sec.

Classement général :

1. Romain Sicard (FRA, France A) en 22h41'59"
2. Timofey Kritskiy (RUS, Russie) à 1'43"
3. Tejay Van Gaderen (USA, Etats-Unis) à 1'58"
4. Julien Bérard (FRA, France à 2'12"
5. Darwin Atapuma (COL, Colombie) à 2'14"
6. Peter Stetina (USA, Etats-Unis) à 2'19"
7. Rafael Valls Ferri (ESP, Espagne) à 2'20"
8. Michel Kreder (PBS, Pays-Bas) à 2'26"
9. Daniel Teklehaimanot (ERY, Mixte) à 2'29"
10. Romain Beney (SUI, Suisse) à 2'33"

Kléber

Sicard and Kritskiy escaped on the descent before the final climb, with the Frenchman letting the Russian take the stage win as the yellow jersey was assured.

frenchfighter

Sicard has certainly earnt his jersey which is great. Maybe a GC hope for the French eventually!

takethehighroad

Big Bob will be happy about Tejay Van Gardren's performance

Kléber

Sicard won the TT today to boost his lead in the GC, especially since the no.2 crashed and sustained some injuries. The Frenchman will ride for Euskatel next year.

The race was marred by two Ukrainian riders being arrested for handling doping products and none of the team started the TT stage.

stefrees

Kléber wrote:

Sicard won the TT today to boost his lead in the GC, especially since the no.2 crashed and sustained some injuries. The Frenchman will ride for Euskatel next year.

The race was marred by two Ukrainian riders being arrested for handling doping products and none of the team started the TT stage.

is that going to be the first non basque on the euskatel team???

frenchfighter

Good performance by Sicard.

Are you sure he is going to Euskatel? That would surprise me a lot for the simple reason that of their 23 riders this year, not one single rider has a nationality other than Spanish.

EDIT: Well it would make sense I guess given he rides for their feeder team but it is very strange - every other rider on the Orbea team is Spanish. Maybe he has close links with the Basque region...

frenchfighter

Luke Rowe was 4th in the bunch sprint yesterday.

frenchfighter

Not even 22 but he has his own website!

http://romainsicard.free.fr/

Kléber

He's French and Basque, from "Iparralde" which is the northern part of the Basque country, the French bit, more precisely Tarnos which is north of Biarritz. He's not the first French Basque rider on the squad either, they had Thierry Ellisalde on the team years ago.

I told you he was good

frenchfighter

Ah ok that makes sense. Also you have an unusually high level of information, I wonder if you are involved with the sport in some capacity or whether you are a well informed fan!

afx237vi

Samuel Sanchez is not a Basque, he's an Asturian. They also had Unai Etxebarria for a while, a Venezuelan, although his parents were Basque.

iainf72

Whole team from the Ukraine chucked off the race. Seems they might have been caught with Actovegin and didn't have a diabetic handy.

frenchfighter

Classement 9ème étape :

1. Dennis Van Winden (PBS, Pays-Bas) les 116,5 km
2. Nico Keinath (ALL, Allemagne) m.t.
3. Chris Barton (USA, Etats-Unis) m.t.
4. Peter Kennaugh (GBR, Grande-Bretagne) m.t.
5. Andreas Stauff (ALL, Allemagne) à 18 sec.

Classement général final :

1. Romain Sicard (FRA, France A)
2. Tejay Van Gaderen (USA, Etats-Unis) à 2'01"
3. Sergej Fuchs (ALL, Allemagne) à 3'22"
4. Jacobus Venter (AFS, Mixte) à 3'24"
5. Michel Kreder (PBS, Pays-Bas) à 3'30"
6. Peter Stetina (USA, Etats-Unis) à 3'32"
7. Daniel Teklehaimanot (ERY, Mixte) m.t.
8. Nicolas Schnyder (SUI, Suisse) à 3'46"
9. Andrei Krasilnikau (BLR, Mixte) à 3'49"
10. Rafael Valls Ferri (ESP, Espagne) à 3'57"

iainf72

More on the dopage

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/ ... -of-doping

Admiited they were using blood transfusions.

Kléber

frenchfighter wrote:

Classement général final :

1. Romain Sicard (FRA, France A)
2. Tejay Van Gaderen (USA, Etats-Unis) à 2'01"

This was adjusted after Sicard changed bikes during the final stage. He got a bike from one of the France B riders and since this was not a formal team mate of his, he was slapped with a... 2 minute penalty. So he won by a single second :shock:

iainf72

And even more bizarrely it was down to pedal type