The Tour de l'Avenir, which starts Saturday, has an interesting route. The race kicks off in Tignes with a 3.3km prologue, the twist being that it's uphill at an average gradient of 7.9%. Two hilly days and two flat days follow. The Queen stage on Thursday sees the riders tackle a cat 1 and a HC climb ahead of the cat 1 ascent to the line in Tignes. On Friday we have a split day, with a mountain stage followed by an uphill TT (10.4km @ 6.8%).
A lot of the pre-race talk has been of a showdown between Seixas and Widar but I reckon Slovenia's Omrzel (winner of the Giro Next Gen), Nordhagen (who has a point to prove after a disappointing Giro Next Gen), the strong Spanish trio of Martí, Pericas and Torres (will they treat us to a Movistar tactical masterclass?) and Italy's Lorenzo Finn are worth keeping an eye on too. For those unaware of Finn, he was Seixas' closest rival last year, frequently running him close and occasionally (as in the Worlds) beating him. In the early stages of the Giro Next Gen, he looked to be the only rider capable of hanging with Widar before circumstances dictated hat he had to ride for Luckwell.
I'm hoping to see Hobbs (GB) and Dunwoody (Ire) mixing it up for stage wins and keeping my fingers crossed for a decent showing from young Jamie Meehan (Ire) who has just recently managed to snare himself a contract with Cofidis having progressed via the French amateur and continental scene. I'm also looking forward to seeing if Callum Thornley can kick on from his impressive 10th at the Giro Next Gen which he managed despite he too having had to work for Luckwell.
Taking my lead from
@No Ta Doctor and ignoring Norwegians, I'd assume Simon Dalby (6th last year) is the best chance of a Viking taking the spoils but I thought Peter Øxenberg (pronounced oo?) rode well in the recent Vuelta a Burgos and it'll be interesting to see if he can continue to show an improvement from an underwhelming start.