Vomit, crashes and epic climbs: young Aussies rise to the challenge at Tour de l’Avenir

Somebody once said, “if the road is easy, you’re likely going the wrong way”.

As part of AusCycling’s development program, six young cyclists took a road that was anything but easy, taking on the world’s foremost under-23 race last week, the Tour de l’Avenir.

The 10-day French tour featured crosswind carnage, chaotic bunch sprints and, to top it off, a trio of brutal mountain stages, including the highest paved pass in the Alps.

“It's the Tour de France for under-23s,” explained Donna Rae-Szalinski, AusCycling’s Endurance Development Coordinator. “It's an opportunity where all the national teams are represented, and you get to race against your peers and basically give yourself a platform to judge where you're at, and to show the rest of the world where you're at.”

The Tour de l’Avenir has been a proving ground for many top Australian men. Current pros like Michael Storer, Caleb Ewan and Jack Haig have all cut their teeth at this “race of the future”.

If the route itself wasn’t difficult enough, the Australian squad of Jarrad Drizners, Lucas Plapp, Jensen Plowright, Carter Turnbull, Rudy Porter and Matthew Dinham battled multiple crashes and an untimely stomach bug in what was, for some of them, the highest level of European racing they’d ever faced.

Ultimately, only 102 of 174 starters finished the race on Sunday.

AusCycling asked Dinham and Plowright about their experiences at the Tour, and how it will add to their development as cyclists.

Matthew Dinham – 12th overall

In the general classification, Dinham was Australia’s highest-placed rider, finishing 12th. It was a result to be proud of for the versatile cross-discipline athlete, who has previously placed in the top 10 at a UCI Junior Mountain Bike World Championships.

“The first few days, I was still trying to gauge how I was going, and it was a little bit harder on the flat stages. But once we started hitting the hills, you could see people filter out a little bit more and especially on that crosswind day, Stage 3,” Dinham said.

“I started getting a little bit more confident, being able to pull turns on the flat with some of the bigger guys. You knew that once we got to the hills, they'd be struggling more. And I think that Colombier stage, where I finished top 15, really launched me into the GC.

“I was pretty impressed with myself there. I wasn't really expecting to be going that good, but clearly the preparation with Tour de Savoie Mont Blanc and all the climbing there definitely helped.”

Matthew Dinham finished 12th overall at the 2021 Tour de l'Avenir. (Credit: Audrey Duval)

With no end of misfortune for his teammates (Plapp crashed out after Stage 1, while Plowright and Porter withdrew due to illness), Dinham said each day brought new challenges to overcome.

“Especially on the first few stages, the bunch was very, very stressful. I've never experienced anything like it. I had a crash on the first stage at about 40km to go: just massive braking compression. I went over the bars actually, smashed my frame, cracked it in half and finished that stage on a broken frame,” said Dinham.

“And then there were more crashes in the next few days. I went down in another one where a motorbike was involved, same with Rudy as well – but everyone's going to have a bad moment during the Tour and you sort of just have to make best of it. Fortunately, each time something went wrong, we managed to make it back.

“In terms of the stomach bug, I was rooming with Jarrad and I think he was the first person to get it. I just remember waking up in the middle of the night and he was throwing up in the bathroom, which was pretty horrible for him.

“A couple of the other boys got quite sick as well. I think Rudy was probably the last one to get it with two stages to go, but we sort of just tried to isolate people as they were getting it.

“Obviously, with the COVID risk at the moment, we're sort of practising very good hygiene as well. So, disinfect hands, face masks on during transport, trying to avoid getting anything. But it definitely added to the stress of the racing because obviously you're not feeling great with so much race food. You're not quite used to taking on that many carbs, so you're already on the limit and you're not sure if that's sickness or just from the food itself.”

Jensen Plowright – 2nd, Stage 4

After crashing in the Prologue, mixing it up in the sprints and making the front group with Drizners in the Stage 3 crosswinds, Podium Potential Academy athlete Jensen Plowright found his best legs on Stage 4, where he was the runner-up in the bunch sprint.

Like Dinham, Plowright found the frenetic international peloton to be a shock to the system.

“I’ve ridden in Europe, but this was just the most hectic race I've done. The tension in the peloton was just ridiculous and everyone was fighting for those podium spots. Everything that you do here is – well, they’re big results, if you can win a stage or get on the podium. Everyone's fighting for that,” said Plowright.

“My highlight was running second on stage four. I was stoked to get that result. I was sick during the start of the tour, so I was just battling through that and trying to get better. I was just starting to come good and I was on the podium which was really good, just to show what I could actually do.”

“I was really looking forward to the next day, but I sort of started feeling crook and had a bit of bad luck in that run-in. And then, the day after that I felt really crook and had a bad gut and couldn’t really eat, and it went downhill from there,” Plowright said.

Jensen Plowright withdrew with illness after a 2nd place on Stage 4. (Credit: Audrey Duval)

Lessons learned

As a development experience, both riders agreed that the Tour de l’Avenir gave them important skills for a new style of racing.

“I learnt how to ride in a European bunch,” said Plowright, who has plenty of experience racing in tight spaces on the velodrome, “which was a steep learning curve, but also something I got down by the end, I think. It's really what I need to get used to moving forward. Also, my first European bunch kicks. That was a big learning curve for me as well, getting in the right position and the technical finishes. It's such a big thing being in the right spot.”

Dinham said, “Honestly, every stage I learnt something new. I think, for the first few stages, just learning how to ride in the bigger bunches – especially with how stressful it is. Even the SEG directeurs sportif [ed: staff from SEG Racing Academy helped with the Australian team’s on-the-ground operations] were saying it was some of the most hectic racing they've done all year or in their careers, just being in the convoy. So learning to ride that bunch was awesome.

“And then, once we got to the hills it was just a completely different ballgame, trying to ride front group, learning to conserve energy to use it when you actually needed to.

“Obviously, [it was a] great developmental opportunity and hopefully I’ll come back next year a bit stronger with a nice, strong Aussie team.”

Australian colours

Back home, Rae-Szalinski said the six Australians could be pleased with how they rose to the challenge of the Tour de l’Avenir.

“I think the riders went well, particularly when you consider we've been very restricted in their exposure to international racing. So Jarrad Drizners is the only rider who is living in Europe at this point in time, and the other riders had only had a few races in Europe, because they couldn't get to Europe because of our travel restrictions.

“In the light of that, to get a podium and to get 12th in GC, I was very, very pleased. And more pleasing was the conduct of the team and the way that they meshed as a group and the way that they represented Australia,” said Rae-Szalinski.

“What the riders got out of l’Avenir was experience: to be able to race on that international platform; the exposure, to be able to showcase what their capabilities are to the various teams that were watching, because it was watched globally; and also, what I would hope to think is that they had the opportunity to represent Australia, because it's a very special thing to throw that Australian jersey on.”

(L-R) Lucas Plapp, Jensen Plowright, Rudy Porter, Carter Turnbull, Matthew Dinham and Jarrad Drizners. (Credit: Tour de l'Avenir)

Szalinski thanked SEG Racing Academy for providing on-the-ground support for the Australian team at the Tour de l’Avenir.

“This was our first opportunity to build a relationship with staff in Europe. We couldn't send Australians from here, so we built a relationship with SEG Academy and they provided us with staff, vehicles, everything. And I think that's a really important new relationship to have, should we be faced with ongoing international restrictions for travel. That was one thing that that I thought was was pretty special. It has unlimited potential,” said Szalinski.

The under-23 men will next race in Australian colours when Drizners. Plowright, Plapp and Turnbull link up with Alastair MacKellar at the UCI Road World Championships in Belgium in September.

Feature image credit: Audrey Duval