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44th Tour de l'Avenir - 2.Ncup
France, September 6-15, 2007
2006 results Stage List Preview Start List Past winners
The Stages
- Stage 1 - September 6: Belle-Île-en-Mer, 148.5 km
- Stage 2 - September 7: Quiberon - Saint-Jean-la-Poterie, 164.5 km
- Stage 3 - September 8: Pipriac - Cholet, 138 km
- Stage 4 - September 9: Cholet - Contres, 211.5 km
- Stage 5 - September 10: Sassay - Sassay, 24 km
- Stage 6 - September 11: Contres - Saint-Amand-Montrond, 143.5 km
- Stage 7 - September 12: Cérilly - Super-Besse, 175 km
- Stage 8 - September 13: Besse-et-Saint-Anastaise - Brioude, 134 km
- Stage 9 - September 14: Chomelix - Craponne-sur-Arzon, 148 km
- Stage 10 - September 15: Craponne-sur-Arzon - Saint-Flour, 148 km
Major changes to format but same tough roads
By Bjorn Haake
The 2007 Tour de l'Avenir sees two major changes in its format. For the first time since 1980 the event is run with national teams. And the age limit has been lowered to 23 - to be precise the event is open to anybody between 19 and 22 years of age. That's down from its previous under 25 regulation. Most teams are from Europe, but unlike last year, USA did get a spot this time around.
Team USA will be riding with Thomas Peterson of Slipstream, wearer of the mountain jersey in the Tour of California until Christophe Laurent, who will be Peterson's team-mate next year, took over on stage four. The national junior champion of 2004 will be accompanied by Chris Barton of Ojai, California, and Craig Lewis, the winner of the U23 road race and criterium in 2006. Also on the team will be Peter Salon, who has won the junior crit title in 2006, Tejay Van Garderen, a ten time national junior champ and Peter Stetina, who did his first ProTour race in Plouay last week.
The other North American team is from Canada, with Christian Meier, Ryan Anderson, Eric Boily, Bradley Fairall, Keven Lacombe and David Veilleux in the line-up.
France will send two squads, while other Euro teams include Slovenia, Portugal, Denmark, Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Spain, Switzerland and Norway. Then there is a strong Eastern bloc with the Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, Kazakhstan, Latvia and Russia. The field is completed by a mixed team with riders of three different continents and include a few Colombians, a Chinese rider and two Africans.
The route starts in a "beautiful island in the sea," according to its own name (Belle-Île-en-Mer) and heads on mostly flat roads towards the east, before stage five's time trial. The day in Sassay will mark the end of all hiding. After the time trial, there is only one more flat stage before the race heads into the medium mountains in the Massif Central for the last four days. The race will finish in St. Flour where its big brother, Le Tour, has visited before as well.
The Tour de l'Avenir's name is already a hint that it shows signs of things to come, and famous winners of the event include Felice Gimondi, Joop Zoetemelk, Miguel Indurain, Laurent Fignon and American Greg LeMond. Last year, it was Spaniard Moisés Dueñas (Agritubel) who won the race and was profiled on Cyclingnews during his recent win at the Regio Tour. He would love to win the big one, the Tour de France and in doing so he would join the above list who have all done the double.
Start list
Slovenian National Team French National Team A
2 Blaz Jarc (Slo) 11 Guillaume Levarlet (Fra)
3 Kristjan Koren (Slo) 12 Jérôme Coppel (Fra)
4 Joze Senekovic (Slo) 13 Nicolas Hartmann (Fra)
5 Simon Spilak (Slo) 14 Stéphane Poulhies (Fra)
6 Gasper Svab (Slo) 15 Anthony Roux (Fra)
16 Jean-Charles Senac (Fra)
Danish National Team Portuguese National Team
21 Andre Steensen (Den) 31 Vitor Rodrigues (Por)
22 Thomas Kvist (Den) 32 Claudio Apolo (Por)
23 Jakob Bering (Den) 33 Rui Costa (Por)
24 Andreas Frisch (Den) 34 José Mendes (Por)
25 Kasper Jebjerg (Den) 35 Nelson Rocha (Por)
26 Jonas Jörgensen (Den)
Russian National Team Dutch National Team
41 Ivan Rovny (Rus) 51 Lars Boom (Ned)
42 Andrey Klyuev (Rus) 52 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned)
43 Aleksey Kunshin (Rus) 53 Tom Leezer (Ned)
44 Sergey Shcherbakov (Rus) 54 Bauke Mollema (Ned)
45 Valery Valynin (Rus) 55 Jos Van Emden (Ned)
46 Ildar Zakirov (Rus) 56 Dennis Van Winden (Ned)
German National Team Italian National Team
61 Tony Martin (Ger) 71 Valerio Agnoli (Ita)
62 Mathias Belka (Ger) 72 Dario Cataldo (Ita)
63 Simon Geschke (Ger) 73 Marco Coledan (Ita)
64 Dominic Klemme (Ger) 74 Adriano Malori (Ita)
65 Stefan Schafer (Ger) 75 Fabio Taborre (Ita)
66 Paul Voss (Ger)
Latvian National Team Belgian National Team
81 Gatis Smukulis (Lat) 91 Jelle Vanendert (Bel)
82 Normunds Lasis (Lat) 92 Nikolas Maes (Bel)
83 Viesturs Luksevics (Lat) 93 Stijn Neirynck (Bel)
84 Herberts Pudans (Lat) 94 Dries Van Der Ginst (Bel)
85 Kristofers Racenajs (Lat) 95 Kristof Vandewalle (Bel)
86 Martins Trautmanis (Lat) 96 Pieter Vanspeybrouck (Bel)
Kazakh National Team Spanish National Team
101 Dmitriy Gruzdev (Kaz) 111 Javier Aramendia (Spa)
102 Nazar Jumabekov (Kaz) 112 Javier Etxarri (Spa)
103 Alexandr Kilibaev (Kaz) 113 Marcos Garcia (Spa)
104 Berik Kupeshov (Kaz) 114 Jose Herrada (Spa)
105 Yevgeniy Nepomnyachshiy (Kaz) 115 Benat Intxausti (Spa)
106 Alexandr Shushemoin (Kaz) 116 Diego Milan (Spa)
Swiss National Team Lithuanian National Team
121 Marcel Wyss (Swi) 131 Ignatas Konovalovas (Ltu)
122 Laurent Beuret (Swi) 132 Andrius Buividas (Ltu)
123 Mathieu Deschenaux (Swi) 133 Gediminas Kaupas (Ltu)
124 Reto Hollenstein (Swi) 134 Marius Kukta (Ltu)
125 Martin Kohler (Swi) 135 Evaldas Siskevicius (Ltu)
126 Michael Randin (Swi)
USA National Team Polish National Team
141 Thomas Peterson (USA) 151 Pawel Cieslik (Pol)
142 Chris Barton (USA) 152 Adrian Honkisz (Pol)
143 Craig Lewis (USA) 153 Tomasz Krupinski (Pol)
144 Peter Salon (USA) 154 Lukasz Modzelewski (Pol)
145 Peter Stetina (USA) 155 Maciej Paterski (Pol)
146 Tejay Van Garderen (USA) 156 Pawel Wachnik (Pol)
Canadian National Team Ukrainian National Team
161 Christian Meier (Can) 171 Dmytro Krivtsov (Ukr)
162 Ryan Anderson (Can) 172 Oleg Chuzhda (Ukr)
163 Eric Boily (Can) 173 Volodymyr Landyrev (Ukr)
164 Bradley Fairall (Can) 174 Dmytro Novosad (Ukr)
165 Keven Lacombe (Can) 175 Oleh Opryshko (Ukr)
166 David Veilleux (Can) 176 Andriy Suralyov (Ukr)
French National Team B Mixed Team
181 Cyril Bessy (Fra) 191 Rafaa Chtioui (Tun)
182 Thomas Brigaud (Fra) 192 Abdelkader Belmokhtar (Alg)
183 Sébastien Fournet Fayard (Fra) 193 Haijun Ma (Chn)
184 Mickael Larpe (Fra) 194 Dalivier Ospina (Col)
185 Florian Morizot (Fra) 195 Jarlinson Pantano (Col)
186 Yoann Offredo (Fra) 196 Oscar Sanchez (Col)
Norwegian National Team
201 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor)
202 Alexander Kristoff (Nor)
203 Christer Rake (Nor)
204 Stian Sommerseth (Nor)
205 Sondre Sortveit (Nor)
206 Frederik Wilmann (Nor)
Past winners
Year Winner Best Team Distance Stages Tour de l'Avenir 2006 Moises Duenas Nevado (Spa) Agritubel 1393 km 10 2005 Lars Bak (Den) Team CSC 1444.3 km 10 2004 Sylvain Calzati (Fra) Vlaanderen - T Interim 1518.2 km 10 2003 Egoi Martinez (Spa) Carvalhelhos - Boavista 1519.4 km 10 2002 Evgeni Petrov (Rus) Euskaltel-Euskadi 1463 km 10 2001 Denis Menchov (Rus) iBanesto.com 1559.5 km 10 2000 Iker Flores (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 1562 km 10 1999 Unai Osa (Spa) 1998 Christophe Rinero (Fra) Casino 1471 km 12 1997 Laurent Roux (Fra) TVM 1344 km 9 1996 David Etxebarria (Spa) ONCE 1858 km 11 1995 Emmanuel Magnien (Fra) Castorama 1614 km 11 1994 Angel Casero (Spa) Banesto 1591 km 11 1993 Thomas Davy (Fra) Castorama 1543 km 12 1992 Hervé Garel (Fra) RMO 1528 km 12 Tour of the European Community 1990 Johan Bruyneel (Bel) Toshiba 1370 km 10 1989 Pascal Lino (Fra) RMO 1440 km 9 1988 Laurent Fignon (Fra) France 1846 km 12 1987 Marc Madiot (Fra) France 1719 km 12 1986 Miguel Indurain (Spa) System U 1712 km 14 Grand Prix de l'Avenir (Paris-Vierzon-Thiers) 1985 Martin Ramirez (Col) Cafe de Colombia 1612 km 13 1984 Charly Mottet (Fra) Renault 1620 km 12 1983 Olaf Ludwig (DDR) East Germany 1959 km 15 1982 Greg Lemond (USA) East Germany 1382 km 11 1981 Pascal Simon (Fra) USSR 1514 km 14 1980 Alfonso Florez (Col) USSR 1629 km 12 1979 Serguei Soukhoroutchenkov (URS) USSR 1643 km 12 1978 Serguei Soukhoroutchenkov (URS) USSR 1577 km 12 1977 Eddy Schepers (Bel) Belgium 1597 km 12 1976 Sven-Åke Nilsson (Swe) Spain 1017 km 9 1974 Enrique Martinez Heredia (Spa) Poland 1296 km 11 1973 Gianbattista Baronchelli (Ita) Switzerland 1480 km 11 1972 Fedor Den Hertog (Ned) Netherlands 1618 km 13 1971 Régis Ovion (Fra) France 1638 km 11 1970 Marcel Duchemin (Fra) France 779 km 4 Tour de l'Avenir 1969 Joop Zoetemelk (Ned) Netherlands 1846 km 10 1968 Jean-Pierre Boulard (Fra) France 1567 km 12 1967 Christian Robini (Fra) France 1560 km 10 1966 Mino Denti (Ita) Italy 1955 km 12 1965 Mariano Diaz (Spa) Spain 2167 km 12 1964 Felice Gimondi (Ita) Spain 2021 km 13 1963 André Zimmermann (Fra) Spain 2060 km 14 1962 Antonio Gomez Del Moral (Spa) Netherlands 2120 km 14 1961 Guido De Rosso (Ita) Spain 2209 km 14 Past winners by Mario Stiehl, www.world-of-cycling.com
