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Joe Blackmore performed a “tactical masterclass” on his way to historic victory at the Tour de l’Avenir at the weekend, his sports director has said.
The 21-year-old became the first-ever British rider to win the men’s l’Avenir, the most prestigious under-23 race in the world, on Saturday.
Speaking to Cycling Weekly on Monday, John Herety, BC’s sports director at the French race, said that he was “tactically, extremely smart”, especially regarding Blackmore’s seizing back of the race lead on stage five.
The Israel-Premier Tech rider took yellow on a tough stage three to La Rosière, but lost it on stage four to Pablo Torres of Spain. However, on stage five he was able to get into the day’s breakaway along with GB teammate Louis Sutton to take almost five minutes back on Torres. Blackmore then held on on the final day, winning by just 12 seconds in the end.
“It wasn’t a physical thing, it was a tactical thing, and it was a perfect storm to create the break and then the situation, to put Torres to the sword,” Herety said. “Then on the last day, all we could do was get Joe to the bottom of the final climb, and then it would be man against man.
“We didn’t know if was going to be enough, Torres had a really hard day the day before too, chasing the break. It was horrendous in the car, especially in the last couple of kilometres, it was touch and go. The road is so narrow that you couldn’t get up there to talk to your rider, we were shouting out of the car, in an old-school way.”
The DS said that the whole performance was “very, very, special”.
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“We’re really pleased with how everybody rode, the staff as well, the work they put in behind the scenes,” he said. “It’s great to achieve something as big as that. Matt Brammeier [BC’s U23 Academy Coach] has put a lot of work into this, he had this in mind six or seven months ago to use Joe at l’Avenir. It’s part of the Nations Cup, which decides how many riders we get at the Worlds.”
It caps a stunning season for Blackmore, which has seen him win the Tour du Rwanda, the Tour de Taiwan, and the under-23 version of Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
“It’s difficult to say, and I wouldn’t want to put pressure on him,” Herety said, asked how far Blackmore could go. “I think he sees himself as a stage racer rider capable of doing one-week tours, a leader in those sorts of races, and he has proved that already. I don’t think he’s overly confident about talking about where’s next, but Grand Tours have to be it really. He doesn’t know how far he could go.
“He’s relatively new to road racing, but he’s not new to riding a bike. He has an extremely good temperament, he’s really quiet but when he speaks up people listen. Tactically, he’s extremely smart. The stage he won to take the yellow jersey, that was a tactical masterclass.”
It was not all perfect for GB, though, despite a stage win and the first ever overall win.
“As a team, we’re a little bit annoyed because we should have had two more stage wins through Matty Brennan,” Herety said. “We were a bit too relaxed once we got the breakaways back. We weren’t out of the top five on any day to be honest. A good way to finish, though, and a nice way to do it.”
Blackmore will now ride in the under-23 category at the mountain bike World Championships this weekend, before he goes on to take part in the Tour of Britain next month.
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