The Tour de l’Avenir will welcome development teams this year, organiser A-Velo has announced.
The French stage race – one of the most prestigious under-23 events on the calendar – has only been contested by national teams since 2007. But it has now asked the UCI to replace its Nations Cup ranking with a 2.2, paving the way for under-23 trade teams.
Translating to English as ‘Tour of the Future‘, the race is a mini Tour de France with no set route – though it tends to challenge participants with numerous Alpine stages, and sometimes makes forays abroad – last year’s race, for example, finish at the top of the Colle delle Finestre in Italy.
There is also a women’s race – the Tour de l’Avenir Femmes, which was inaugurated in 2023 and runs alongside the men’s event. That has been won by Shirin van Anrooij, Marion Bunel and Isabella Holmgren so far.
