No British rider has ever won the Tour de l’Avenir, but Joe Blackmore has as good a chance as anyone from his country to rectify that on Saturday.
Blackmore, who won Wednesday’s third stage, finished sixth in Friday’s stage between Les Karellis and Condove to retake the yellow jersey.
The parcours for today’s stage, complete with tomorrow’s fearsome final day finish on the hors-catègorie Colle delle Finestre in Italy, suggested it would be a day for the breakaway. This turned out to be the case, but not quite as expected.
Attacks on the second category climb of the Montée d’Aussois split the peloton and put race leader Pablo Torres and his Spanish team under pressure. After Dutch rider Tijmen Graat – who started the day fourth overall, one place behind Blackmore – and his teammate Max Van Der Meulen launched their bid to jump across to the front group, the British rider followed.
“It was full gas all day, maybe apart from the first 20 kilometers,” says Blackmore. “We managed to get a good gap across the line, so it was worth it.”
Only eight riders from the breakaway made it to the finish together, while Torres came home 11th, 4:58 down on Blackmore. Belgian rider Jarno Widar, who started the day second overall, lost 7:21. Only Graat (0:24) and fellow breakaway rider Léo Bisiaux (0:45) are within a minute of the Brit on GC but Blackmore is refusing to take anything for granted.
He adds: “I wouldn’t say I’m the favorite for the stage tomorrow, given how Pablo and Jarno were climbing yesterday. But I did some really good work in the valley today to push out the time gap for tomorrow, as I think I’ll need it. I’ll give it everything I’ve got tomorrow to try and hold the yellow.”
Photo: Tour de l’Avenir
