Sam Coleman (AS Villemur) has been collecting wins for fun since the season started and now the Irish junior has taken another victory, his second of the 2024 campaign in France, again going solo.
And later in the afternoon rounded off a dream day by taking general classification victory in the French national-level two-stage race he was riding, Route d’Éole.
Coleman opened his season last month by winning the 96.5km Mapei Classic in France before taking victory on the opening stage at Rás Mhaigh Eo, and finishing 2nd in the stage 2 TT, a couple of weeks ago.
He also took a really impressive win at the B9 Energy Storage Tour of Ards; the 18-year-old distancing very strong A1 breakaway companions on the uphill finish after a hard day out in the rain.
This morning in France he claimed the opening stage of two – both to be held today – in Route d’Éole. The 100km stage 1 took the riders from Feings to Fougères-sur-Bièvre, with the Irishman beating Valentin Commont (Team Avesnois) for the win.
He dropped Commont to take victory by 17 seconds, with the bunch sprinting in for 3rd place some 59 seconds back, though a big crash in the pack marred the end of the race for those riders.
That meant Coleman, from Hamiltonsbawn in Co Armagh, was in the yellow jersey going into the 13km TT stage 2 from Feings to Fougères-sur-Bièvre this afternoon.
And he did enough in that TT to hold on to yellow and emerging from the race with stage 1 and overall victory.
Coleman was 15th in the TT, some 55 seconds down on stage winner Jules Hue (AC Bisontine U19) and that resulted in Coleman winning the race overall by four seconds over Hue. The Irish teenager also claimed the points jersey on a fantastic day of racing for him.
More details to come later.
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