Nairo Alexander Quintana Rojas stormed up the 12.8km long climb at seven percent to the finish in Risoul to take the stage and the final overall classification in the 2010 Tour de l'Avenir. Rojas was the only rider under 34 minutes in the 13.5km long stage and came in with a time of 33'35. American Andrew Talansky was second, 47 seconds behind. Jarlinson Pantano Gómez was third, already 1'17 down. The same three riders also are the final podium, in the same order.
The 20-year-old Colombian was moved after his second win in as many days. "I am very emotional. The Tour de l'Avenir is the biggest race in my age group," he said. His lead over Tom Jelte Slagter was only 20 seconds heading into the final day. But final victory was on Quintana's mind from the beginning. "All of us in the Colombian team were very motivated at the start in Vierzon. We knew we all had our card to play, so we all did our job."
Quintana finished a solid 17th in the prologue, steadily moved up into the top ten and was not deterred by losing a few places in the middle of the race. He took over the lead on stage six, after truly doing his job. Today's victory was a confirmation of the climbing ability of the Colombian. By giving everybody a chance to go for victory, the team benefited "This profited the team without penalizing anybody," Quintana said. "This is nice as we created a strong bond within the team." Nobody felt like the typical domestique.
"This is a nice story - of course it is even nicer for me, with this yellow jersey," he added. For now there is no talk for him to move into a professional team. "Next year, I will continue to ride with the Colombian team. I don't know yet what I will do then, but I hope to make it to a ProTour or a Continental team." If his climbing abilities stay as strong as they were here, he should have no trouble achieving this goal.
Talansky was extremely pleased with his second place today and second overall. On twitter he pointed out those who made his result possible. "A HUGE thanks to Team USA! Everyone from the staff to the riders were amazing all week. I can't say it enough, this is a TEAM sport and none of this would have been possible without the support of the guys." The 'guys' of Team USA are Taylor Phinney, Alex Howes, Ian Boswell, Benjamin King and Christopher Butler.
The jersey winners
The points jersey was taken by John Degenkolb, who had won two stages. Degenkolb ended the race with 123 points, ahead of Michael Matthews (108) and Romain Hardy (69). The climber's jersey went to Jarlinson Pantano Gomez, who gathered 69 points. Hardy was second here (51), Talansky third (50).
Colombia also won the teams classification, almost 14 minutes ahead of Spain and over 23 minutes ahead of the French A team. That leaves the unofficial race for last place, where Phinney joked on twitter that he hoped to take the 'win', as he was only four seconds ahead of Timothy Kennaugh. Phinney proved to be too strong on the mountain. "Well...that hurt... Lost the competition for last place to Timmy Kennaugh, worthy adversary. ;) I finished Avenir! Happy with that."
The only rider on the American team who had any kind of trouble today was Ben King. "UCI has a minimum weight. 6.8 kg. My trek Madone was too light [6.6kg]! Had to ride powertap training wheel w/ skipping gears."
Stage result
1 Nairo Quintana Rojas Colombia 00:33:35.600
2 Andrew Talansky USA 00:00:47
3 Jarlinson Pantano Gómez Colombia 00:01:17
4 Tom Jelte Slagter Netherlands 00:01:45
5 Gregory Brenes Mixed Team 00:01:53
6 Michael Matthews Australia 00:01:55
7 Wilco Kelderman Netherlands 00:02:07
8 Jesus Herrada Lopez Spain 00:02:15
9 Dmitriy Ignatyev Russia 00:02:20
10 Vicente Garcia Da Mateos Spain 00:02:20
Final overall ranking
1. Quintana Rojas Nairo Alexander 26h49'21"
2. Talansky Andrew 01'44"
3. Pantano Gomez Jarlinson 01'55"
4. Slagter Tom Jelte 02'05"
5. Landa Meana Mikel 03'17"
6. Bardet Romain 03'59"
7. Bonnin Thomas 04'05"
8. Matthews Michael 04'10"
9. Atapuma Hurtado John Darwin 04'14"
10. Kelderman Wilco 04'14"