As expected, the British team were under the cosh in the opening week of the Tour de I'Avenir, with both national champion David Rand and Julian Ramsbottom pulling out. But Collstrop guest rider Roger Hammond was in aggressive mood

IT has to be said that the Tour de I'Avenir started well enough for the British team comprising national open champion David Rand, Olympian Chris Newton, under-23 champion Paul Manning, Julian Ramsbottom, Banesto rookie Jeremy Hunt and Dutch-based Glenn Holmes. Newton managed ninth in the prologue, backed by his North Wirral team-mate Paul Manning in 11th.

That was as good as things got for the British team, while the squads with a realistic chance of winning overall staked their claims as contenders. Christophe Moreau, the talented Festina rider who finished 75th in this year's Tour de France took the prologue but relinquished the yellow jersey of race leadership the following day when Rafael Diaz Justo took his leave of the break to finish alone and take the race lead.

The following two days were run off at high average speeds which didn't deter Collstrop guest rider Roger Hammond attacking in the company of Mario Aerts of Vlaanderen 2002 a mere 30 kilometres into stage four. It was a bold move into a stiff headwind but, reasoning that Nicolas Jalabert had pulled off a similar coup the previous day, there was no reason why they shouldn't have a crack either.

Sadly for Hammond and his Belgian companion, Rabobank and the Australian AIS-Giant team put themselves on the front and Hammond's bid for a stage win was snuffed out with 12 kilometres to go. Rabobank's hard work was rewarded with a stage win for Robbie McEwen who had come close on previous sprint stages with a fourth and second place already. This win took McEwen's tally of Tour de I'Avenir stages to three in three participations.

Stage five saw a serious shakeup in the overall as the race reached what the French call I moyenne montagne' and what we might call extremely hilly roads between Vatan and Saint Eloy. The racing was aggressive throughout the day and the men on the attack included Stuart O'Grady, Laurent Roux and Stephane Petilleau of TVM together with Sergei Ivanov, another name prominent in the results of the earlier stages.

Roux, Petilleau, Ivanov, GAN rider Emmanuel Hubert and Lotto's Kurt Van der Wouwer made the stage-winning break, although a crash on the hilly finishing circuit saw Roux' and Hubert's chances of a stage win go out the window. Instead it was the Russian who took the win from Petilleau, although the yellow jersey went to Vincent Templier, part of a sizeable chasing group who finished 20 seconds down on stage winner Ivanov.

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As we went to press on Monday night, there was good news for Roger Hammond whose roommate Magnus Backstedt took the yellow jersey following an epic break. `They were 25 minutes up at one point, there was no Festina rider or GAN rider,' explained Hammond, `I reckon everyone thought they were going for the king of the mountain points but they just kept going. It's great for the team, I had a reasonably easy day today, but I reckon we'll have a hard time tomorrow. Magnus was in a break with five riders and it could all come down to them now - although I suppose anything could happen in the mountains.'

As far as 21-year-old Backstedt is concerned, `I'll see what happens. I came here hoping to win a stage and do as well as I could overall, but this is much better.' Good news for the British camp was that Hunt made the break too, but was dropped with 10 kilometres to go.

Prologue

1. Christophe Moreau (France) Festina 4.9km in 5-44
2. S. O'Grady (GAN) at 1sec
3. E. Hubert (GAN) at 3sec
4. C. Bassons (Festina) at 5sec
5. M. Blaudzun (Rabobank) at 7sec
6. J. Fernandez (Euskadi) at at 8sec
7. S. Heulot (GAN)
8. S. Ivanov (Lada)
9. C. Newton (GB) at 9sec
10. C. Rinero (Mutuelle) at 10sec