UNBELIEVABLE! Pablo Torres wins at Colle delle Finestre with almost 4 minutes over Joseph Blackmore but Briton wins Tour de l'Avenir by a thread
Cycling
It may have been the most mythical climbing performance of all cycling history by an 18-year old... Pablo Torres of Spain won the queen stage of the Tour de l'Avenir and put 3:43 minutes into his closest competitor Joseph Blackmore at the Colle delle Finestre. But amazingly, the Briton managed to save the yellow jersey and the overall win by a mere few seconds.
The day after a full-on raid, it was Joseph Blackmore's race to lose on the final stage which was mostly flat, but had a summit finish at the Col de Finèstre. A breakaway of four riders features Niklas Behrens, Julian Kot, Pietro Mattio and Marek Kapela.
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The group never had much of a gap and unsurprisingly was caught inside the final climb. The 18-kilometer ascent is one of the most brutal in pro cycling and surprisingly, Belgian Jarno Widar began to struggle with the consecutive mountain stages almost at the start. On the opposite you had a rider with ultra special legs on the day. In the many hairpins of the Italian ascent, Pablo Torres - former race leader - attacked with 13 kilometers to go.
It looked obvious that the Spaniard was going to be winning the stage as he quickly built a healthy gap, The difficult gradients made it hard for teammates to be of much use, and Joseph Blackmore eventually attacked to go on the chase of his former main rival. Tijmen Graat, second in the GC, later attacked himself and joined the yellow jersey. But soon both realized their main threat was actually the Spaniard that was out front - who races for the under-23 UAE Team Emirates team.
Torres' win was one of epic proportions but he did not manage to win the GC, as Joseph Blackmore lost 3:43 minutes on the line, and had 12 seconds to spare for his Spanish rival. Tijmen Graat rode to third on the day and will also finish in the final spot of the podium.
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