Archie Ryan followed up his stage win at the Ronde de l’Isard on Saturday by helping his Jumbo-Visma Development teammate Johannes Staune-Mittet to overall victory on Sunday.
Ryan and the rest of the team helped control things on the 153.6 kilometre concluding stage to Saint-Girons, allowing a large breakaway group to go clear early on and limiting their gains.
They also marked Staune-Mittet’s closest rivals, helping to ensure he maintained his near-two minute advantage over his closest rival Rueben Thompson (Equipe Continentale Groupama-FDJ). The time gained by the breakaway meant that Ryan slipped down one place to eighth overall, but since Staune-Mittet won the opening stage of the race on Wednesday, the priority for Ryan and the other riders has always been to help him win the race overall.
It is a measure of the Wicklow rider’s sparkling form that he was able to ride in service of his Norwegian teammate on Saturday’s tough mountain leg and still win the stage.
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[ Archie Ryan wins penultimate stage of Ronde de l’IsardOpens in new window ]
That was his second victory in just over fortnight, following on from his stage win in the Tour of Slovakia. He also took the best young rider award plus sixth overall in that event.
