The Tour de l'Avenir, contested by national teams, featured two stages in one day. In the morning, there was a climbing time trial towards Les Karellis. This was followed by a 70-kilometre mountain stage to the Col du Mont-Cenis. In the afternoon stage, Ryan attacked from the front group and quickly took a half-minute lead. The Irish talent stayed away from the leaders and won.

It was only Ryan's second race of the season back from injury. "It was a tough day”, an elated Ryan said. "The preparation for this stage race was suboptimal due to a lack of competition. I only raced my first race of the season last week. I crashed on the second stage, so I had to recover for a while, but the last few days went well with some places of honour. So I'm delighted to have won a stage here.”

Tijmen Graat, Ryan's teammate at the Jumbo-Visma Development Team, is tenth overall in the prestigious U23 stage race after seven days.

Photo: Anouk Flesch - Tour de l'Avenir