Russian rider Sergey Pomoshnikov has got a historical victory at the last, 6^th stage of prestigious Tour de l’Avenir.

In France, the most famous and prestigious youth race Tour de l’Avenir has finished. The last, 6^th stage was held from Beaufort to Le Grand Bournand and has constituted 82,8 km. The stage distance included 4 climbs, including the final climb Le Chinaillon.

Russian National Team, represented by Itera-Katusha riders did one of the best race in the season. During almost the whole race Igor Frolov worked hard, leading the peloton and creating a strong attack base for other Russian riders. Later, on the final climb, attacks of Sergey Pomoshnikov, Sergei Chernetckii and Gennady Tatarinov created the leader’s group of 14 riders. Three Itera-Katusha’s rider worked very well in the leader’s group, attacked and neutralized attacks of their rivals.

Finally, in the sprint between the leader’s group, Chernetckii and Tatarinov did all possible to provide a good position for Sergey Pomoshnikov, who launched a fantastic spurt, winning the stage for the first time since Timofey Kritskiy did it in 2008.

Second place at the stage took Warren Barguil from France, third place took Patrick Konrad from Austria. Sergei Chernetckii finished 7^th, Gennady Tatarinov did 14^th.

Warren Barguil became new Tour de l’Avenir overall winner, while Sergei Chernetckii finished 4^th in general classification with just +0.15. 6^th stage winner Pomoshnikov did 6^th overall, while Tatarinov finished 7^th.

Besides, National Russia won the final team’s classification of Tour de l’Avenir.

- Today is a fantastic day both, for our team and all Russian cycling. Tour de l’Avenir – is the most prestigious race for young riders. The fact, Russian rider won today one of the hardest stage says about real recovering of Russian youth cycling. It’s a big victory of the team, the big success for the Russian Global Cycling Project, which real works! I am very happy for our young riders, who get such a great results, especially with short time before the World Championships. Sergey Pomoshnikov did a great race and deserved a victory. But, the whole team was fantastic today – Igor Frolov, Gennady Tatarinov and Sergei Chernetckii. Maybe, we could do better in general classification, but yesterday stage, important for us, was shortened. Anyway, we did a good race here, in France, – said Nikolay MOROZOV, sports director of Itera-Katusha.