Rojas wins the Tour de l’Avenir
Alexander Quintana Rojas climbed the 12.8km uphill final stage of the Tour de l’Avenir to win the seven-stage French race, after winning two consecutive stages in a similar fashion.
"I am very emotional. The Tour de l'Avenir is the biggest race in my age group," said Rojas. "All of us in the Colombian team were very motivated at the start in Vierzon. We knew we all had our card to play, so we all did our job."
The penultimate stage of the Under-23 event went through six categorized climbs, including two category ones, and the monstrous 14km ascent to the summit finish. 20-year-old Rojas proved himself the strongest man on that final climb, cementing that fact by winning the short, uphill final stage, which was essentially the same as the finale of the previous stage.
"This is a nice story - of course it is even nicer for me, with this yellow jersey," he added. For now there is no talk for him to move into a professional team. "Next year, I will continue to ride with the Colombian team. I don't know yet what I will do then, but I hope to make it to a ProTour or a Continental team."
Tom Jelte Slagter entered the final stage only 20 seconds behind Rojas, but rather than close the gap, he fell behind and finished in fourth overall. Andrew Talansky was runner-up to Rojas on both of the victor’s winning stages, which earned him the second-place podium spot overall, ahead of the winner’s Colombian teammate Jarlinson Pantano Gómez in third in both the stage and overall.
"A HUGE thanks to Team USA! Everyone from the staff to the riders were amazing all week,” said Talansky on Twitter. “I can't say it enough, this is a TEAM sport and none of this would have been possible without the support of the guys."
Team USA includes Taylor Phinney, who won the prologue and the first stage in a continuation of the young rider’s remarkable season, but fell out of the overall competition due to a crash which had him finish a stage in last place, minutes behind the rest of the riders. He finished second-last overall, ahead of only Timothy Kennaugh.
"Well...that hurt... Lost the competition for last place to Timmy Kennaugh, worthy adversary. ;) I finished Avenir! Happy with that,” he said over Twitter.
John Degenkolb won the points classification after two stage wins, ahead of sprinters Michael Matthews and Romain Hardy. Hardy, who won the fourth stage, was also the runner-up in the climbers’ points competition, behind Gomez and ahead of Talansky. Thanks to Gomez and Rojas, the Colombian team won in the teams’ classification.
"This profited the team without penalizing anybody," said Rojas. "This is nice as we created a strong bond within the team."
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