So, as the cyclingfans.com editor blog mentioned, right now is an exciting time for racing, especially racing with live coverage. However, one of the races that did not get much coverage, so far as I can tell, was the Tour de l’Avenir.
A Brief History
Most literally, Tour de l’Avenir means “Tour of the Future”. And it’s name perfectly describes it. It’s a stage race designed to showcase the up and coming talent in the sport of cycling. The exciting part of the Tour de l’Avenir is that in many cases, the riders are amateurs or ride for small city or state teams and this is a great opportunity to see what the future holds for the sport.
I enjoy the Tour de l’Avenir because it IS the Tour de France for these future cycling stars. A quick look at the list of winners since 1961 only serves to show the caliber of race Avenir is. Greg Lemond, Miguel Indurain, Marc Madiot, Johan Bruyneel, Denis Menchov, Egoi Martinez, 2005 winner Lars Bak, and 2006 winner Moises Duenas Nevado, to name a few.
That being said, from a Team Slipstream perspective, this year’s Tour de l’Avenir was equally exciting because several members of the Slipstream team rode for the USA National Team. Thomas Peterson, Craig Lewis, and Peter Stetina made up one half of the Team USA team.
Because I am just now getting to covering this race, I will not do a detailed recap of each stage. But I am going to recap each rider’s results.