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Tour de l'Avenir 2018 - SPOILERS

DeadCalmDeadCalm Posts: 4,028
edited August 2018 in Pro race
Starts today. Hopefully it will be worthy of its own thread. The list of the previous winners is reasonably impressive.

Previous 10 winners:
2017 | BERNAL Egan Arley
2016 | GAUDU David
2015 | SOLER Marc
2014 | LOPEZ Miguel Angel
2013 | FERNÁNDEZ Rubén
2012 | BARGUIL Warren
2011 | CHAVES Johan Esteban
2010 | QUINTANA Nairo
2009 | SICARD Romain
2008 | BAKELANTS Jan

The Route
The route, which takes the riders from Brittany to the Alps, incorporates 5 bumpy looking flat stages, 4 mountain stages (one of which is only 35 km long) and a Team Time Trial (!) but no individual TT. More details here:

https://www.tourdelavenir.com/en/the-route/

The Contenders
My man Ivan Sosa is the strong favourite but the inclusion of the TTT where Colombia are presumably going to be weak gives a few other riders a glimmer of hope including Aleksandr Vlasov (Russia), Brandon McNulty (USA) and Marc Hirschi (Switzerland). British interest will be focused on 19 year old Mark Donovan who recently signed as a stagiare for Team Sky and 22 year old Stephen Williams who has recently signed to ride for Bahrain-Merida. They finished 4th and 5th respectively in this year's Baby Giro.

The full startlist is here:

https://www.tourdelavenir.com/en/teams-riders/

TV Coverage
I can't find any mention of the race in Eurosport's listings before next Saturday. If anyone comes across details of any coverage (live or otherwise) I'd be extremely grateful if they could post here.
Team My Man 2022:

Antwan Tolhoek, Sam Oomen, Tom Dumoulin, Thymen Arensman, Remco Evenepoel, Benoît Cosnefroy, Tom Pidcock, Mark Cavendish, Romain Bardet
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Posts

  • blazing_saddlesblazing_saddles Posts: 20,674
    DeadCalm wrote:
    Starts today. Hopefully it will be worthy of its own thread. The list of the previous winners is reasonably impressive.

    Previous 10 winners:
    2017 | BERNAL Egan Arley
    2016 | GAUDU David
    2015 | SOLER Marc
    2014 | LOPEZ Miguel Angel
    2013 | FERNÁNDEZ Rubén
    2012 | BARGUIL Warren
    2011 | CHAVES Johan Esteban
    2010 | QUINTANA Nairo
    2009 | SICARD Romain
    2008 | BAKELANTS Jan

    The Route
    The route, which takes the riders from Brittany to the Alps, incorporates 5 bumpy looking flat stages, 4 mountain stages (one of which is only 35 km long) and a Team Time Trial (!) but no individual TT. More details here:

    https://www.tourdelavenir.com/en/the-route/

    The Contenders
    My man Ivan Sosa is the strong favourite but the inclusion of the TTT where Colombia are presumably going to be weak gives a few other riders a glimmer of hope including Aleksandr Vlasov (Russia), Brandon McNulty (USA) and Marc Hirschi (Switzerland). British interest will be focused on 19 year old Mark Donovan who recently signed as a stagiare for Team Sky and 22 year old Stephen Williams who has recently signed to ride for Bahrain-Merida. They finished 4th and 5th respectively in this year's Baby Giro.

    The full startlist is here:

    https://www.tourdelavenir.com/en/teams-riders/

    TV Coverage
    I can't find any mention of the race in Eurosport's listings before next Saturday. If anyone comes across details of any coverage (live or otherwise) I'd be extremely grateful if they could post here.


    No, nothing showing up so far, this year. As I said earlier, they did cover at least the mountain stages live, last year.
    Looks like they may have dropped it in favour of the returning Deutschland Tour.

    Anyhow, there is live coverage, via Youtube and here:-

    https://www.facebook.com/events/1117701775045969
    "Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.
  • DeadCalmDeadCalm Posts: 4,028
    Blazing Saddles wrote:
    No, nothing showing up so far, this year. As I said earlier, they did cover at least the mountain stages live, last year.
    Looks like they may have dropped it in favour of the returning Deutschland Tour.

    Anyhow, there is live coverage, via Youtube and here:-

    https://www.facebook.com/events/1117701775045969
    Brilliant. Thank you.
    Team My Man 2022:

    Antwan Tolhoek, Sam Oomen, Tom Dumoulin, Thymen Arensman, Remco Evenepoel, Benoît Cosnefroy, Tom Pidcock, Mark Cavendish, Romain Bardet
  • DeadCalmDeadCalm Posts: 4,028
    The Facebook link and a bunch of Youtube 'streams' all ultimately led to a site asking me to input my credit card details which I'm not going to do. So, disappointingly, I didn't manage to catch any of the action live.

    The stage was won by German sprinter Max Kanter.
    Team My Man 2022:

    Antwan Tolhoek, Sam Oomen, Tom Dumoulin, Thymen Arensman, Remco Evenepoel, Benoît Cosnefroy, Tom Pidcock, Mark Cavendish, Romain Bardet
  • coopster_the_1stcoopster_the_1st Posts: 5,158
    DeadCalm wrote:
    The Contenders
    My man Ivan Sosa is the strong favourite but the inclusion of the TTT where Colombia are presumably going to be weak gives a few other riders a glimmer of hope including Aleksandr Vlasov (Russia), Brandon McNulty (USA) and Marc Hirschi (Switzerland). British interest will be focused on 19 year old Mark Donovan who recently signed as a stagiare for Team Sky and 22 year old Stephen Williams who has recently signed to ride for Bahrain-Merida. They finished 4th and 5th respectively in this year's Baby Giro.

    The full startlist is here:

    https://www.tourdelavenir.com/en/teams-riders/

    Not really up on my U23 racing but no hope for Eddie Dunbar or does he just not have the team to support him?
  • DeadCalmDeadCalm Posts: 4,028
    Coopster the 1st wrote:
    DeadCalm wrote:
    The Contenders
    My man Ivan Sosa is the strong favourite but the inclusion of the TTT where Colombia are presumably going to be weak gives a few other riders a glimmer of hope including Aleksandr Vlasov (Russia), Brandon McNulty (USA) and Marc Hirschi (Switzerland). British interest will be focused on 19 year old Mark Donovan who recently signed as a stagiare for Team Sky and 22 year old Stephen Williams who has recently signed to ride for Bahrain-Merida. They finished 4th and 5th respectively in this year's Baby Giro.

    The full startlist is here:

    https://www.tourdelavenir.com/en/teams-riders/

    Not really up on my U23 racing but no hope for Eddie Dunbar or does he just not have the team to support him?
    Not massively up on my U23 racing either. Hoping to get better acquainted with it and following this race seems to be a good start.

    As for Eddie Dunbar, I had him down as more of a hilly classics type rider rather than the kind of pure climber I'd expect to be challenging for GC. Quite happy to be told otherwise though.
    Team My Man 2022:

    Antwan Tolhoek, Sam Oomen, Tom Dumoulin, Thymen Arensman, Remco Evenepoel, Benoît Cosnefroy, Tom Pidcock, Mark Cavendish, Romain Bardet
  • DeadCalmDeadCalm Posts: 4,028
    No highlights from stage one that I have been able to locate as yet but it seems to have been a standard bunch sprint. All but nine riders are on the same time.

    Vendee U Pays De La Loire are making an impressive early bid for the young Lanterne Rouge, occupying the final two spots on GC, Joris Vincent managing to ship an impressive 6 minutes 25 seconds. Sadly, young Joris seems to have a habit of not finishing races, so we have to doubt his ability to last the distance.
    Team My Man 2022:

    Antwan Tolhoek, Sam Oomen, Tom Dumoulin, Thymen Arensman, Remco Evenepoel, Benoît Cosnefroy, Tom Pidcock, Mark Cavendish, Romain Bardet
  • blazing_saddlesblazing_saddles Posts: 20,674
    I'll keep looking, but it does look like the race has gone down the web only link.
    As for videos and to prove there was coverage last year:-

    Stage 8:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCVU3bO ... utu.be&t=2

    Last couple of kms of Stage 9:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zA78IjpisLs
    "Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.
  • specialgueststarspecialgueststar Posts: 3,417
    Stages. No results board ?
    Fri 17 Aug Grand-Champ Elven
    Sat 18 Aug Drefféac Châteaubriant
    Sun 19 Aug Le Lude Châteaudun
    Mon 20 Aug Orléans Orléans
    Tue 21 Aug Beaugency Levroux
    Wed 22 Aug Le Blanc Cérilly
    Thu 23 Aug Moûtiers Méribel
    Fri 24 Aug La BathieCrest-Voland Cohennoz
    Sat 25 Aug Séez Val d'Isère
    Sun 26 Aug Val d'Isère Saint-Colomban-des-Villards
  • No_Ta_DoctorNo_Ta_Doctor Posts: 12,212
    Danish team looks decent. Mikel Bjerg is the u23 TT champ, Magnus Bak Claris won a jnr Roubaix a few years back. Could do quite well on the team TT.
    “Road racing was over and the UCI had banned my riding positions on the track, so it was like ‘Jings, crivvens, help ma Boab, what do I do now? I know, I’ll go away and be depressed for 10 years’.”

    @DrHeadgear

    The Vikings are coming!
  • knedlickyknedlicky Posts: 3,097
    DeadCalm wrote:
    No highlights from stage one that I have been able to locate as yet but it seems to have been a standard bunch sprint.
    If you're really desperate, the twitter feed https://twitter.com/tourdelavenir has a couple of 10-sec videos on it showing the start, the break crossing the line on the earlier final circuits, and of the finishing bunch sprint.

    In the build-up to the finishing sprint, Kanter followed Banaszek's wheel before making his move as they left the last curve, visible in the distance. Banaszek ended up second.

    Among the photos on the Twitter feed, the guy carrying his bike to the finish line (in Twitter only identified as a team mate of Kanter) is Jonas Rutsch, who crashed shortly before the finishing sprint, but who was given the same time as Kanter and the other 140-odd of the peloton.
  • DeadCalmDeadCalm Posts: 4,028
    No tA Doctor wrote:
    Danish team looks decent. Mikel Bjerg is the u23 TT champ, Magnus Bak Claris won a jnr Roubaix a few years back. Could do quite well on the team TT.
    Magnus Bak Claris in the break today.
    Team My Man 2022:

    Antwan Tolhoek, Sam Oomen, Tom Dumoulin, Thymen Arensman, Remco Evenepoel, Benoît Cosnefroy, Tom Pidcock, Mark Cavendish, Romain Bardet
  • DeadCalmDeadCalm Posts: 4,028
    Blazing Saddles wrote:
    I'll keep looking, but it does look like the race has gone down the web only link.
    As for videos and to prove there was coverage last year:-

    Stage 8:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCVU3bO ... utu.be&t=2

    Last couple of kms of Stage 9:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zA78IjpisLs
    Ha. Yes I do believe you. Just sod's law that the year I take an interest the coverage is so sparse.
    Team My Man 2022:

    Antwan Tolhoek, Sam Oomen, Tom Dumoulin, Thymen Arensman, Remco Evenepoel, Benoît Cosnefroy, Tom Pidcock, Mark Cavendish, Romain Bardet
  • DeadCalmDeadCalm Posts: 4,028
    knedlicky wrote:
    DeadCalm wrote:
    No highlights from stage one that I have been able to locate as yet but it seems to have been a standard bunch sprint.
    If you're really desperate, the twitter feed https://twitter.com/tourdelavenir has a couple of 10-sec videos on it showing the start, the break crossing the line on the earlier final circuits, and of the finishing bunch sprint.

    In the build-up to the finishing sprint, Kanter followed Banaszek's wheel before making his move as they left the last curve, visible in the distance. Banaszek ended up second.

    Among the photos on the Twitter feed, the guy carrying his bike to the finish line (in Twitter only identified as a team mate of Kanter) is Jonas Rutsch, who crashed shortly before the finishing sprint, but who was given the same time as Kanter and the other 140-odd of the peloton.
    Thanks. I'll check them out.
    Team My Man 2022:

    Antwan Tolhoek, Sam Oomen, Tom Dumoulin, Thymen Arensman, Remco Evenepoel, Benoît Cosnefroy, Tom Pidcock, Mark Cavendish, Romain Bardet
  • bobmcstuffbobmcstuff Posts: 10,629
    DeadCalm wrote:
    Blazing Saddles wrote:
    I'll keep looking, but it does look like the race has gone down the web only link.
    As for videos and to prove there was coverage last year:-

    Stage 8:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCVU3bO ... utu.be&t=2

    Last couple of kms of Stage 9:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zA78IjpisLs
    Ha. Yes I do believe you. Just sod's law that the year I take an interest the coverage is so sparse.

    You'd think if they marketed it a bit more strongly it could attract decent viewership. Baby Tour and all that.
  • DeadCalmDeadCalm Posts: 4,028
    DeadCalm wrote:
    No tA Doctor wrote:
    Danish team looks decent. Mikel Bjerg is the u23 TT champ, Magnus Bak Claris won a jnr Roubaix a few years back. Could do quite well on the team TT.
    Magnus Bak Claris in the break today.
    Three man break has a gap of almost 7 minutes.

    45- Hakon Lunder AALRUST (Norvège) +0'00"
    67- Alan RIOU (France) +0'00"
    110- Magnus BAK KLARIS (Danemark) +0'00"

    Text updates in French, ici:

    https://www.directvelo.com/direct/3834/ ... ir-etape-2
    Team My Man 2022:

    Antwan Tolhoek, Sam Oomen, Tom Dumoulin, Thymen Arensman, Remco Evenepoel, Benoît Cosnefroy, Tom Pidcock, Mark Cavendish, Romain Bardet
  • blazing_saddlesblazing_saddles Posts: 20,674
    edited August 2018
    The 9th stage is now showing up on my Eurosport schedule, after Deutschland Tour and before La Vuelta.
    "Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.
  • specialgueststarspecialgueststar Posts: 3,417
    The Bretagne Riou from Klaris
  • DeadCalmDeadCalm Posts: 4,028
    SpecialGuestStar wrote:
    The Bretagne Riou from Klaris

    Magnifique!

    Yep. A win for the break.

    Rnk Rider Team UCI Pnt Time
    1 Riou Alan France 12 5 3:11:43
    2 Klaris Magnus Bak Denmark 8 2 0:01
    3 Aalrust Hakon Norway 4 1 ,,
    4 Dainese Alberto Italy 2:16
    5 Kanter Max Germany ,,
    6 Oliveira Rui Portugal ,,
    7 Stannard Robert Australia ,,
    8 Thijssen Gerben Belgium ,,
    9 Martin Gotzon Spain ,,
    10 Menant Theo Vendee U Pays De La Loire ,,

    Team Rwanda dominating the Baby Lanterne competition:

    147 Denis Thomas Vendee U Pays De La Loire 12:02
    148 Banaszek Alan Poland 16:13
    149 Boguslawski Marceli Poland 17:05
    150 Koch Christian Germany ,,
    151 Heiderscheid Colin Luxembourg ,,
    152 Hakiruwizeye Samuel Rwanda 17:20
    153 Manizabayo Eric Rwanda 18:11
    154 Mugisha Samuel Rwanda ,,
    155 Ukiniwabo Jean Paul Rene Rwanda 19:39
    Team My Man 2022:

    Antwan Tolhoek, Sam Oomen, Tom Dumoulin, Thymen Arensman, Remco Evenepoel, Benoît Cosnefroy, Tom Pidcock, Mark Cavendish, Romain Bardet
  • specialgueststarspecialgueststar Posts: 3,417
    0E9A9740.JPG
  • DeadCalmDeadCalm Posts: 4,028
    Did a quick bit of research to see if any of the three breakaway riders were any threat to GC. Doesn't look like it.

    Brief summary of what I discovered:

    Alan Riou (France): 21 year old Breton, born in Lannion which was the destination of my first ever 200km ride so I'm now a fan, obviously. Seems to be a player in the local 1.1 category races but no form above that level. Signed his first professional contract to ride for Team Fortuneo - Samsic in 2019.

    Magnus Bak Klaris (Denmark): When No Ta Doctor mentioned him, the name rang a bell. Now 22 years old, he had a great 2014 including winning Paris Roubaix Juniors at a time when Denmark seemed to own that race. He doesn't seem to have kicked on from that season though.

    Hakon Aalrust (Norway): A 20 year old who was two times junior cyclo-cross champion of Norway and runner-up in the elite category for the past two years. As far as I can see his only notable acievements on the road have been 2nd on a stage (also from a break) in the Grand Prix Priessnitz spa (me either) and 58th in GC at the Tour of Norway.
    Team My Man 2022:

    Antwan Tolhoek, Sam Oomen, Tom Dumoulin, Thymen Arensman, Remco Evenepoel, Benoît Cosnefroy, Tom Pidcock, Mark Cavendish, Romain Bardet
  • No_Ta_DoctorNo_Ta_Doctor Posts: 12,212
    DeadCalm wrote:
    Magnus Bak Klaris (Denmark): When No Ta Doctor mentioned him, the name rang a bell. Now 22 years old, he had a great 2014 including winning Paris Roubaix Juniors at a time when Denmark seemed to own that race. He doesn't seem to have kicked on from that season though.

    It's always a bit tricky with young Danish riders. In the youth competitions that are raced as a national team (Roubaix, Avenir etc.) they've had quite a lot of success, but this is often attributed to having a good youth set-up - so that young riders achieve their potential at an early age but maybe don't have much further development left. They've consistently produced great TTers at jnr and u23 level and have excellent results on the track as well, but seem to fade after. Mads Würtz Schmidt (Katusha, 24) and Lasse Norman Hansen (Aqua Blue, 26) were both regarded as the crown jewels of Danish youth cycling in their time. They're still pretty young, but the wins have dried up. There are a few riders that have bucked the trend - Valgren and Cort (25 and 26 respectively) stand out as genuine WT level riders - but the Danes are maybe missing a stepping stone between the Conti level (not pro conti) Danish teams and getting a WT spot with a chance to race for your own palmares.
    “Road racing was over and the UCI had banned my riding positions on the track, so it was like ‘Jings, crivvens, help ma Boab, what do I do now? I know, I’ll go away and be depressed for 10 years’.”

    @DrHeadgear

    The Vikings are coming!
  • blazing_saddlesblazing_saddles Posts: 20,674
    Eurosport now confirmed with live coverage of the 10th and final stage, next Sunday at 12-30pm.
    "Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.
  • DeadCalmDeadCalm Posts: 4,028
    Blazing Saddles wrote:
    Eurosport now confirmed with live coverage of the 10th and final stage, next Sunday at 12-30pm.
    Yay!

    Thought I saw coverage for Saturday also somewhere but can't see it now.
    Team My Man 2022:

    Antwan Tolhoek, Sam Oomen, Tom Dumoulin, Thymen Arensman, Remco Evenepoel, Benoît Cosnefroy, Tom Pidcock, Mark Cavendish, Romain Bardet
  • DeadCalmDeadCalm Posts: 4,028
    France seem to have played a tactical blinder today. They placed their top sprinter Damien TOUZÉ (3rd on the opening stage) in the break causing other teams to do all the chasing. The break just hung on with TOUZÉ taking the stage and his compatriot Riou holding onto yellow.

    Rnk Rider Team UCI Pnt Time
    1 TOUZE Damien France 12 5 3:39:16
    2 AFFINI Edoardo Italy 8 2 ,,
    3 ARENSMAN Thymen Netherlands 4 1 0:05
    4 O'LOUGHLIN Michael Ireland ,,
    5 KANTER Max Germany 0:07
    6 STANNARD Robert Australia ,,
    7 OLIVEIRA Rui Portugal ,,
    8 HIRSCHI Marc Switzerland "

    The top 4 were the remnants of the break, the most interesting (to me) of whom is 18 year old Dutch wunderkind Thymen Arensman who I had previously read about on the informative u23cyclingzone blog here:

    https://u23cyclingzone.wordpress.com/20 ... -arensman/
    Team My Man 2022:

    Antwan Tolhoek, Sam Oomen, Tom Dumoulin, Thymen Arensman, Remco Evenepoel, Benoît Cosnefroy, Tom Pidcock, Mark Cavendish, Romain Bardet
  • blazing_saddlesblazing_saddles Posts: 20,674
    DeadCalm wrote:
    Blazing Saddles wrote:
    Eurosport now confirmed with live coverage of the 10th and final stage, next Sunday at 12-30pm.
    Yay!

    Thought I saw coverage for Saturday also somewhere but can't see it now.

    You did. It's still there.
    4pm - Eurosport 1.
    Plus repeats.
    "Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.
  • DeadCalmDeadCalm Posts: 4,028
    Blazing Saddles wrote:
    DeadCalm wrote:
    Blazing Saddles wrote:
    Eurosport now confirmed with live coverage of the 10th and final stage, next Sunday at 12-30pm.
    Yay!

    Thought I saw coverage for Saturday also somewhere but can't see it now.

    You did. It's still there.
    4pm - Eurosport 1.
    Plus repeats.
    :oops: So it is.
    Team My Man 2022:

    Antwan Tolhoek, Sam Oomen, Tom Dumoulin, Thymen Arensman, Remco Evenepoel, Benoît Cosnefroy, Tom Pidcock, Mark Cavendish, Romain Bardet
  • DeadCalmDeadCalm Posts: 4,028
    Team Time Trial today. Seems a little odd to me to include one in a race such as this but, hey ho, we will maybe see a change in the lead and should definitely see some time gaps opening up between the GC contenders. If Team Colombia time trial to stereotype then Sosa should concede a decent amount of time to his rivals. I don't know what the rest of his team are like but Sosa is definitely not a strong tester.

    With the TTT in mind, France's tactics yesterday seem particularly smart. As well as nabbing a second stage win and retaining the yellow jersey, all but one of their riders had an easy day whilst the Norwegian team were working on the front all day.

    One has to feel sorry for team Rwanda. A couple of their riders were involved in an accident on Saturday and when the start of the stage yesterday was really fast, four of their team rapidly lost contact and eventually abandoned. Joseph Areruya and Samuel Mugisha are their only two remaining riders. Bearing in mind that the results of the riders in the TTT are taken after the 4th rider crosses the line, this would seem harsh. Fortunately, the losses are capped at 2 minutes so provided Joe and Sam manage to finish within the time cut (winning time plus 30%) they should be allowed to continue. On a flat course, riding two up against teams of six, that will be no easy task. Fingers crossed they can manage it.

    Other teams affected by losses are Japan (two riders), Australia, Austria and Poland (one rider each). Additionally, in a blow to Stephen Williams' quest to add the junior TDF title to the grown-up one for South Wales, GB's Daniel Tullet crashed yesterday and came in almost 30 minutes in arrears of the peloton so it would be reasonable to wonder whether he will be able to contribute much, if anything.
    Team My Man 2022:

    Antwan Tolhoek, Sam Oomen, Tom Dumoulin, Thymen Arensman, Remco Evenepoel, Benoît Cosnefroy, Tom Pidcock, Mark Cavendish, Romain Bardet
  • Vino'sGhostVino'sGhost Posts: 4,129
    this sounds like a daft stage in a race like this.

    re Rwanda do they get a time penalty for not having 4 finishers as well?
  • DeadCalmDeadCalm Posts: 4,028
    Vino'sGhost wrote:
    this sounds like a daft stage in a race like this.

    re Rwanda do they get a time penalty for not having 4 finishers as well?
    No time penalty, except that as they will not have a 4th rider, they will lose the full two minutes irrespective of their time. The bigger problem I would imagine will be making the time cut with only two riders to share the work.
    Team My Man 2022:

    Antwan Tolhoek, Sam Oomen, Tom Dumoulin, Thymen Arensman, Remco Evenepoel, Benoît Cosnefroy, Tom Pidcock, Mark Cavendish, Romain Bardet
  • specialgueststarspecialgueststar Posts: 3,417
    Joseph Areruya (Rwanda) rides for Marseille and got some heavy duty miles in his legs last year - it looks like it is Samuel Hakiruwizeyes first race in Europe.

    Bon courage!
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