Tour de l'Avenir 2011 (04/09 - 11/09)

[Lupetto]

1 Nairo Alexander Quintana (Col) Colombia 26:49:21
2 Andrew Talansky (USA) United States of America 0:01:44
3 Jarlinson Pantano Gomez (Col) Colombia 0:01:55
4 Tom Jelte Slagter (Ned) Netherlands 0:02:05
5 Mikel Landa Meana (Spa) Spain 0:03:17
6 Romain Bardet (Fra) France B 0:03:59
7 Thomas Bonnin (Fra) France A 0:04:05
8 Michael Matthews (Aus) Australia 0:04:10
9 Darwin Atapuma (Col) Colombia 0:04:14
10 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Netherlands

All Winners

Teams

Australia
Austria
Belgium
Canada
Colombia
Czech Republic
Denmark
France
Germany
Great Britain
Italy
Kazakhstan
Netherlands
Norway
Spain
Switzerland
UCI Mixed Team
United States

 

[Lupetto]

Prologue, Yutz - Yutz, 6.6 km

Stage 1, Yutz - Lunéville, 160,5 km

Stage 2, Rambervillers - Bruyères, 151 km

Stage 3, Gérardmer - Porrentruy, 166,5 km

 

[Lupetto]

Stage 4, Porrentruy - Arbois, 153,5 km

Stage 5, Champagnole - Le Salève, 169 km

Stage 6, Fossano - Fossano, 153,5 km

Stage 7, Alba - Alba, 138,5 km

 

[hrotha]

The route seems to be easier than last year, although that MTF isn't bad.

It's good to see how many guys who did well last year are already making an impression among the real pros this year.

 

[TeoSheva]

Cattaneo ftw

 

[Duartista]

Kelderman vs Quintana, probably. Have the French got 2 teams as usual?

As far as I can tell, they seem to be using this ascent of Saleve:

This is the Colombian team:

Nairo Quintana (Boyacá) Colombia es Pasión-472
Esteban Chávez (Bogotá) Colombia es Pasión-472
Sebastián Salazar (Antioquia) Colombia es Pasión-472
Mikael Rodríguez (Boyacá) Boyacá Orgullo de América
William Valencia (Antioquia) Gobernación Indeportes Antioquia)
Alexis Camacho (Boyacá) Epm-Une

 

[the asian]

So Quintana's attempting back to back wins. Any chnace Pinot is riding? Has he turned pro already, or is just a neo pro.

 

[MADRAZO]

Cattaneo ftw

He seems unbeatable at the moment for sure, so not a bad pick.

I have a feeling Bongiorno will do very well as this should be his main target of the year and the form is beginning to come. He would have liked a harder route though. It should fit Cattaneo well though.

 

[theyoungest]

So Quintana's attempting back to back wins. Any chnace Pinot is riding? Has he turned pro already, or is just a neo pro.

I think Pinot could theoretically participate? Doesn't ride for a WT team, and is U23, obviously.

Don't know if he will though, his future teammate Kenny Elissonde could be the biggest challenger to Quintana in this race. And there are some other decent Frenchies coming up.

The Aussies and the Americans could field pretty strong teams, Holland could too but our moronic national coach decided to bring only one stage racer/climber, Kelderman, and a few sprinters and classics riders.

 

[ingsve]

Norways Vegard Stake Laengen has a stated goal of finishing on the podium. Not sure he'll succeed but will be intersting to see.

Norways team consists of

Vegard Stake Laengen
Vegard Robinson Bugge
Björn Tore Hoem
Svein Erik Byström
Filip Eidsheim
Johan Fredrik Ziesler

Eidsheim should have a decent sprint so it will be interesting to see how it compares to some real competition and not just mainly domestic opponents.

 

[janraaskalt]

Don't know if he will though, his future teammate Kenny Elissonde could be the biggest challenger to Quintana in this race. And there are some other decent Frenchies coming up.

Elissonde will ride in Aosta, so probably not in top shape for the Tour de l'Avenir. Probably Bardet and Barguil are better picks.

 

[Nielsa]

Vegard Robinson Bugge

He was 6th in U23 R.v.Vlaanderen and got invited to a Quickstep training camp earlier this year.

 

[The Hitch]

This is the thread on which i will miss DAOTEC.

 

[kurtinsc]

Can anyone handicap the race a bit? I haven't payed a lot of attention to U23 racing this year. Who are the GC favorites? Who are the sprinters who'll fight out the flat stages? Who are the time trial specialists to look for. Who are the punchy guys that will attack some of those stages with smaller hills toward the finish?

 

[Parrulo]

no portuguese team this year?

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

This is the thread on which i will miss DAOTEC.

Wh$y?!

Rmours -

Boonan ----> Eusktl

Rujano ----&> citusha.

 

[Duartista]

Can anyone handicap the race a bit? I haven't payed a lot of attention to U23 racing this year. Who are the GC favorites? Who are the sprinters who'll fight out the flat stages? Who are the time trial specialists to look for. Who are the punchy guys that will attack some of those stages with smaller hills toward the finish?

The only race I really followed this year was GiroBio, which Cattaneo won ahead of Winner Anacona. It seemed to be more of an Italian than an international race this year though. Quintana is defending his title, whilst Kelderman has been the most impressive rider in this age group this year... France usually have A and B teams which work together, so if they get someone decent in a break early on they would have a good chance of defending any GC advantage they might gain. I don't know much about the other teams.

 

[canyonball]

From France there's Rudy Molard and Romain Bardet? They both had solid performances at Toscanna-Coppa della nazioni. Rudy is currently a stagiaire at Cofidis and 20 year-old Romain has been colecting good results over the season (just recently 11th at Tour de l'Ain)

 

[hrotha]

This is the thread on which i will miss DAOTEC.

Are you kidding? I'm looking forward to following this without DAOTEC spoiling the Colombian performances for me.

 

[Lupetto]

Looks like Rai Sport will show the race.

 

[Fus087]

The only race I really followed this year was GiroBio, which Cattaneo won ahead of Winner Anacona.

This sentence is so great.
His parents have unintentionally shown great humour.

 

[Duartista]

Looks like Rai Sport will show the race.

Great news. Presumably that means French TV are showing it too.

 

[Duartista]

This sentence is so great.
His parents have unintentionally shown great humour.

Name aside, he's actually an interesting rider. He has followed the Uran route of going over to Italy and trying to rise up through the amateur ranks. He seems to pick up plenty of decent results, but I haven't heard of him being linked with any pro-conti teams.

I do wonder if he prefers to known as Andrew (his second name), though.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Adding to the Norwegian love-in, I'm also quite enthused by Bjørn Tore Hoem and would like to see what he's capable of here.

 

[maltiv]

Adding to the Norwegian love-in, I'm also quite enthused by Bjørn Tore Hoem and would like to see what he's capable of here.

I guess he'll just be a domestique for Vegard (one of them, depending on the stage profile!). It's time for the Vegards to show themselves so they can get pro contracts.