Giro della Valle d’Aosta winner Henrique Bravo will lead the team at one of the most important races of the season.
The benchmark event on the U23 calendar, the Tour de l’Avenir (20-26 August) is back this year with a new format that brings some exciting changes. Now open also to development squads, not just national teams, the prestigious race will start for the first time in its history from Normandy and conclude in Italy, after a grueling Alpine triptyque.
Covering more than 900 kilometers, the route can easily be split in two: the first four days come with opportunities for the puncheurs, breakaway men and sprinters, before the climbers take center stage and begin their fight for the prestigious yellow jersey. An 11.4km mountain time trial to Col de Pierre Carrée, on a parcours featuring gravel roads, should make for spectacular racing and proper gaps between the general classification contenders, who just one day later will conclude atop the Col de l’Iseran, Europe’s highest road pass (2764m), after a day with almost 5000 vertical meters.
For the last stage, the race schedules a third consecutive summit finish, this time on Cerasole Reale, another long and hard ascent - which seven years ago was used by the Giro d’Italia - whose slopes could shake up the overall ranking.
Winner of three stage races this season - Tour of Antalya, Oberösterreich Rundfahrt, and Giro della Valle d’Aosta - Henrique Bravo will make his debut at the Tour de l’Avenir, and the 20-year-old Brazilian is motivated for this new challenge.
It will be my first time there and I’m really looking forward to it.
- Henrique Bravo -
“It’s a race with a lot of climbs, which is something I always like. The last three days will be the most important ones, but we need to stay attentive the entire time in order to achieve our goals. We want to have fun, enjoy this race, and give our best as we have quite a strong team for the week”, Henrique said.
Joining him at the start will be Said Cisneros, tenth overall at the Tour de l’Ain just a few weeks ago, Federico Savino, Giro Next Gen stage winner Jasper Schoofs, Viktor Soenens, and Erazem Valjavec.
Our team is pretty much similar to the one we had in the Giro Next Gen, where we enjoyed a great week of racing.
- Soudal Quick-Step Devo sports director Eliot Lietaer -
“The only change is Said, who we are excited to see in action at L’Avenir. Henrique, who has shown some remarkable things in the mountains this season, will be our leader and he’ll try to be up there again. The other guys will have their chances to fight for a good result in the first days, before fully supporting Henrique in the last stages, which are really hard”, said Soudal Quick-Step Devo sports director Eliot Lietaer.
Photo credit: ©Oberösterreich Rundfahrt
©Antonio Baixauli / Getty Images
