Tour de l'Avenir upset on stage 1 as top favourite Finn defeated by Belgian talent from Lotto-Intermarché

Niels Driesen won the first stage of the Tour de l'Avenir. The Belgian rider from Lotto-Intermarché was one of the few who could keep up with Lorenzo Finn’s pace during the challenging hilly stage. The world champion was then beaten by Driesen in the sprint; Kasper Haugland finished second.

The Tour de l'Avenir is most prestigious race for U23 riders. The 'Tour de France for young riders' once again featured a stellar field of competitors and would begin with a tricky hill stage to Argentan.

It was a different start than last year, when the race began with a mountain prologue. Back then, Paul Seixas managed to win the race after an incredible duel with Jarno Widar. Neither of them was there this time, but the U23 world champion and Giro Next Gen winner Lorenzo Finn (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) was in attendance. A major difference from last year: back then, only national teams were allowed to compete; this time, it was a real mix, with development teams also participating.

The youth teams from Red Bull, as well as XDS Astana, Soudal Quick-Step, Visma | Lease a Bike, and UAE Team Emirates, were at the start, along with the national teams from France, Norway, the United States, and others. We saw Dawid Lewandowski from the Polish team and Kade Kreikemeier from the American team in the lead group, along with Soan Ruesche (Groupama-FDJ) and Matthew Dodd (Netcompany INEOS).

However, they were quickly caught. The hilly final circuit in Argentan quickly caused significant splits in the field. About twenty favorites broke away, and with 25 kilometers to go, top favorite Finn launched his first attack. He was joined by Kasper Haugland (Decathlon CMA CGM), Niels Driesen (Lotto-Intermarché), Victor Loulergue (Groupama-FDJ), and Miguel Marín (EF Education-Aevolo).

A few big names had missed the breakaway. Visma | Lease a Bike wasn’t even in the second group, and to make matters worse, Patryk Goszczurny had to drop out. It was a dramatic day for the Dutch team. Meanwhile, it had started raining heavily, which didn’t make things any easier. The five front-runners stayed together for a long time, until Finn accelerated again in the final stretch.

The world champion stood up on the pedals again on the final climb and dropped Loulergue and Marín. Driesen and Haugland managed to hang on. It came down to a three-man sprint: Finn made his move very early, trying to catch his rivals off guard, but they countered easily. Haugland, clearly the heaviest and strongest, then also went too early: Driesen capitalized and won.

1. Niels Driesen
2. Kasper Haugland
3. Lorenzo Finn