Bakelants wraps up l‘Avenir title

Racing for the U.S. national team, American Tejay Van Garderen won the ninth and final stage of the Tour de l’Avenir Sunday, securing his eighth overall position on the general classification, 3:13 behind Belgian winner Jan Bakelants.

American Peter Stetina, who wore the leader’s jersey for one stage, finished the race 10th overall, 4:22 down on GC.

Van Garderen was aggressive on the 144.5km stage from Seix to Mirepoix, jumping out of the peloton along with three others with 20km remaining. The four men bridged across to a two-man breakaway to form a six-man move, however a hard-charging Polish national team brought the group back into the peloton.

With 9km remaining Van Garderen attacked over a 2km climb and opened a gap with Italian rider Damiano Caruso. The American then attacked Caruso, cresting the hill alone and finishing the stage 12 seconds ahead of the field to win the stage.

The win was Van Garderen’s third European victory this year, after also soling to a stage win at Luxembourg’s UCI 2.2 Fleche du Sud stage race on May 1. His Rabobank development team also won the team time trial at the Vuelta Lleida in June.

Van Garderen, from Fort Collins, Colorado, splits his time in Europe between USA Cycling’s Belgium-based National Development Team and the Rabobank squad, where rides alongside world cyclocross champ and U23 world time trial champ Lars Boom.

Stetina, who hails from Boulder, Colorado, moved into yellow at l’Avenir on the mountainous stage 4, but surrendered the jersey the following day. He dropped from second overall to 10th overall on stage 8, the queen stage of the race, which delivered three Cat. 1 climbs and a Cat. 2 in the final 50km in freezing temperatures and rain.

The U.S. national team finished the race second overall in the team classification, 6:47 behind France.

Run by Tour de France organizers ASO, the Tour de l’Avenir, or Tour of the Future, is open to national team riders 23 and under, and is widely referred to as an indicator of future Tour champions. Previous winners include Tour champions Felice Gimondi, Joop Zoetemelk, Miguel Indurain and Laurent Fignon. In 1982 Greg LeMond became the first and only American to win the race.

“It’s a magnificent victory in the biggest of the under-23 races,” said overall winner Bakelants. “The best riders of the class were all present and I wasn’t part of the favorites. But I managed to change the hierarchy to win here. It wasn’t easy, far from that. I had to give all I had to hang on. So today I’m both relieved and also happy — very happy.”

FILED UNDER: Road