Great Britain’s riders suffered their toughest day yet on the arduous sixth stage of the 2015 Tour de l’Avenir, losing two more riders as for a second day in succession the race saw a French stage winner.
The penultimate stage of the 2015 edition of the ‘Tour of the Future’, pinnacle of the UCI Under 23 Nations’ Cup, saw riders tackle the haute category Col de la Madeleine, the 1992-metre monument situated mid-way through the 126-kilometre stage.
Following a long descent from the Madeleine, riders faced the first-category ascent of the Col de Beau Plan before a descent all the way to the finish in Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne.
Great Britain began the day depleted after losing two riders on the preceding day’s stage. Mark Stewart abandoned while Steve Williams was eliminated from the race after arriving at the finish outside of the time limit.
The fast, predominantly downhill opening passage saw a number of attacks but it wasn’t until the climb of the Madeleine began that the meaningful moves occurred. And it was Elie Gesbert of France topped the giant solo, while around a minute behind lay Colombia’s Daniel Martinez.
Hard day @Tourdelavenir climbing over some tough col's. Lost my @oakley M2 frames at start of descent off col de Madeleine #gutted #hotday
— Gabriel Cullaigh (@GabzCullaigh) August 28, 2015
Two minutes and forty seconds adrift of Gesbert, the yellow jersey group winched its way to the top, containing Alex Peters, Great Britain’s best placed rider overall, in 25th place, five minutes and 16 seconds in arrears of overnight yellow jersey Gregor Muhlberger of Austria.
Following the descent Peters attacked from the group on the long valley floor road to St-Martin-de-la-Porte, successfully bridging to Martinez, with Gesbert still around two and half minutes up the road.
But after some initial inertia, the yellow jersey group, led by Italian Edward Ravasi, chased down and caught Peters and Martinez as the race approached the foot of Beau Plan.
The final climb of the day cued up the next salvo of attacks, with Alex Skaarseth (Norway), Laurent De Plus (Belgium), Sebastian Henao (Colombia) and Marc Soler (Spain) all making moves. As the summit approached, Soler looked strong and began eating into solo leader Gesbert’s advantage.
But the Frenchman had done enough and nobody was going to catch him on the long 12-kilometre descent, the Breton rider completing France’s second successive stage victory.
The pressure of the final climb had blown the yellow jersey group apart with Muhlberger the biggest loser, the Austrian eventually losing over ten minutes and with it his overall hopes.
Soler took second place and with it the yellow jersey while Peters cracked in the heat of the final climb, crossing the line over 19 minutes down on the winner.
The result left the Team Sky apprentice 33rd on general classification, 23 minutes and 13 seconds behind the Spaniard.
Gabriel Cullaigh finished in the autobus, 25 minutes and 36 seconds down. But it was bad news for Jake Kelly and Chris Lawless who joined Mark Stewart and Steve Williams on the sidelines, leaving Peters and Cullaigh to contest the final stage for Great Britain.
Saturday’s final stage of the 2015 Tour de l’Avenir sees the race encounter more iconic Tour de France climbs. First the Col du Mollard on the way to the race’s highest point, the infamous Col de la Croix de Fer. A long descent leads to the jaw-dropping switchbacks of Lacets de Montvernier, which debuted at this year’s Tour de France, before a punishing first category uphill finish on the Montee des Bottieres.
