Italy's Ludovico Crescioli stuns peloton at Tour de l'Avenir 2024 taking stage win with late attack

Italy's Ludovico Crescioli stunned the peloton to take victory on stage 2 of the 2024 Tour de l'Avenir this Tuesday afternoon, riding clear after a late attack in the finale. 

After a strong group went clear early on, the breakaway, whose numbers totalled seven riders, headed towards the final 30km of the day, with a gap of around 2:30 over the main peloton. With two climbs still to come however, it was all to play for in terms of the stage win.

As the attacks began in the break on the final climb, the peloton was closing the gap behind. With 10km to go, the lead trio of Colby Simmons (USA), Daniel Vysocan (Czech Rep) and Baptiste Troja (France) only had around 30 seconds on the peloton.

With just over 8km to go, the catch was completed and the breakaway was swallowed up by the peloton. Following the catch however, there was a flurry of attacks at the front of the bunch. Italian Ludovico Crescioli and German Ole Theiler even got themselves a gap of around 10 seconds heading into the final 3km.

Into the final kilometre there was still a notable gap between the leading duo and the chasers and it proved to be a stage winning one too. In the end, it was Crescioli who took the win ahead of Theiler.