The riders who stand out in this year’s youth age group are slowly emerging, and alongside the bombastic Frenchman, Norway’s Jörgen Nordhagen, who also won the Czech Course de la Paix Juniors with confidence.

The 51st Course de la Paix Juniors took place between 4 and 7 May with the Hungarian national team, this time consisting of Ádám Szöllőssy, Balázs Pollner, Márkó Tóth, Tamás Hancz, Barnabás Vas and Zsombor Takács. Nordhagen, with little exaggeration, decided the fate of the yellow jersey in the first stage, after he got breakaway with the American Andrew August at the end of the stage, and the pair finished with a lead of almost half a minute. The next morning, however, he extended his lead by winning the individual time trial, and in the afternoon half stage he only had to look to finish with the front group – a stage won by Czech Krystof Král.

The third stage saw Frenchman Matys Grisel, the winner of the World Cup opener, take the win, while the final day ended with a triumph for Dutchman Senna Remijn.

In the general classification, Nordhagen triumphed by fifteen seconds ahead of August, while Remijn was third – Zsombor Takács was the best Hungarian and finished 63rd (+15:08).

In the Union Cycliste International (UCI) national rankings, Norway currently leads, Denmark is second and the Netherlands third.

The Nations’ Cup series continues on 20-21 May with the French Trophée Centre Morbihan.

There will, of course, be another home Nations’ Cup in 2023, which, as originally planned, will be the tenth stop of the eleven-round series on 16-17 August.