Decisive final stage turns things round
Gaining 24 seconds over the yellow jersey on the mountainous final stage of the race, Colombian rider Johan Esteban Chaves jumped from second to first overall in the Tour de l’Avenir on Sunday. The 21 year old placed third on the 138.5 kilometre stage to Alba, crossing the line two seconds behind Frenchman Warren Barguil and level with Mattia Cattaneo (Italy) plus his own team-mate Michael Rodriguez.
The riders from fifth back all conceded 26 seconds, and this turned Boily’s seven second pre-stage advantage to a 17 second deficit. The break also saw other riders moving up, with Cattaneo jumping from fourth to third, Barguil going from eighth to fifth and Rodriguez breaking into the top ten and finish up sixth.
The final stage included seven climbs, including three of second category ranking, plus an intermediate sprint. Nine rider clipped away early on, including mountains leader Garikoitz Bravo (Spain) and he bolstered his lead by winning the first two climbs and placing second in the third. That was enough to seal his win in that classification.
The group had a lead of three minutes but was brought back after that third climb. The intermediate sprint followed, where Bravo’s team-mate Jordi Simon was first.
On the sixth out of the day’s seven climbs, France team-mates Warren Barguil and Rudy Molard attacked and crested the summit in that order. They were caught afterwards, though, then a persistent Barguil, Cattaneo, Chaves and Rodriguez clipped away. They built a solid lead and would go on to fight it out for the win between them, where Barguil triumphed and Chaves sealed his overall victory.
Romain Bardet won the points jersey while France beat Colombia to the team prize. All of the successful riders will take encouragement from the race’s status as a solid predictor of future talent.