Yesterday’s sixth day of the FBD Insurance Rás was a rollercoaster one for the Irish contenders, with Tommy Evans (Dublin Usher IRC) taking and then losing the yellow jersey and Ciarán Power sprinting to his second stage win of this year’s race.
The morning team time trial saw Evans take over from Danny Pate at the top, due to the squad’s winning performance in the county team classification of the team time trial. Although several teams recorded a faster time in the 24 kilometre test, a race regulation designed not to disadvantage strong riders on small county teams saw the Dublin Usher squad end the stage with the same gain as the fastest team, the Britain Recyling.co.uk riders.
As winners of each category, they had zero time added to their general classification standings while the next teams incurred a fifteen second penalty. Each team thereafter would be given a further five seconds. The finishing placings rather than actual times were used to determine the increase in overall time after the stage.
The net result was that Evans jumped from fourth to first overall, moving eight seconds clear of Kristian House (Recycling.co.uk) and the previous race leader, Danny Pate (USA TIAA – CREF). The third place recorded by Norway Sparebanken Vest saw Morten Hegreberg drop a place and thirteen seconds to fourth, while David O’Loughlin’s Ireland Grant Thornton team finished back in sixth in the International ranking. He consequently went from second, one second behind Pate, to fifth, 29 seconds off the new leader Evans.
The re-jig in the general classification and Evans’ gain as a result of the county team rule meant that the other overall contenders went out determined to shake things up in the afternoon stage, an 83 kilometre leg from An Cheathrú Rua to Westport. The hammer went down right after the start and this forced a split very early on, with eighteen riders going clear. All of the major contenders were here but Hegreberg had a scare when he slipped back. The leaders opened up a gap of over a minute on his chase group but these two eventually came back together.
The GC contenders started marking each other, this manoeuvring giving six riders the opportunity to slip clear. Evan Oliphant (Britain Recycling.co.uk), Wayne Randle (Britain Doncaster Stena Line), Martin Prazdnovsky (Norway Sparebanken Vest), Lukasz Modzelewski (Poland Legia Bazylisek), Mike Friedman (USA A TIAA-CREF) and Ciarán Power (Éireann Dan Morrissey) went ahead and were soon joined by Ryan Connor (Ireland Grant Thornton), Matthew Ward (Dublin IRC Usher Insulations) and Jehudi Schoonacker (Ireland M. Donnelly Sean Kelly).
The latter attacked with approximately 15 kilometres remaining and was joined by Power and Connor. They reached the finish together where Power proved quickest, outsprinting Schoonacker and Conor to take his second victory this week. He also was first to the top of the day’s two category three climbs, moving level with Peter Herzig (Australia FRF Couriers) on KOM points but taking the jersey on countback.
42 seconds after Power’s win, Modzelewski outsprinted Ward, Randle and Prazdnovsky for fourth. Friedman and Hagman were slightly adrift, but the big news was what was happening out the road. While team-mate Ward was up in the break, his team leader Evans was losing his yellow jersey; Pate, House, Hegreberg and O’Loughlin had managed to distance him and put 46 seconds into him by the finish. This was enough to see House take over at the top, the Britain Recycling.co.uk rider being level on time with Pate but ahead on countback. O’Loughlin had attacked many times on the run-in to the finish but was unable to shake off the others. He ended the day 21 seconds behind House and Pate, with Hegreberg just 12 seconds off the race lead in third.
Evans is now 38 seconds down and will find it tough to get that time back again. He had problems with a broken spoke during the stage; having a team-mate up the road rather than in his group also made things harder for him.
As was the case with the yellow and mountains jerseys, the green points jersey was also a tie, with both Morten Hegreberg and Lucasz Modzelewski (Poland Legia Bazylisek) on 40 points. However the former was awarded the jersey on countback.
Power was delighted to get a second stage. “I’m very happy with that. I think it was one of the hardest stages, actually, as everybody knew from the start it was going to be fast and there was also a strong wind there. It was tough. With a kilometre to go Ryan Connor attacked. I knew the Belgian guy would probably leave it to me but I felt strong; I brought him back and then just left him on the front. He started his sprint coming down the hill so it was the perfect lead-out for me. I decided to jump before the Belgian guy got the jump on me and fortunately I managed to hold him off.
“I am getting stronger as the race is going on. I have been taking every second day easy, or as easy as you can in this race. I feel fantastic now, so hopefully I will come out of this race strong. The next few weeks are very important for me and my Navigators team. I will be doing the Philadelphia week, the Tour de Beauce and also the Irish nationals.”
Schoonacker rode well but had to be content with second. “I felt very strong but was not strong enough today,” he said. “I think the best rider won.”
Kristian House took over at the top but said that he was not the team’s number one this week. “I have been working for Chris but have found myself in the right moves this week, so I am in the best position of the team, “ he said. “I am pretty happy to take yellow but the race isn’t over yet. It is still really close between myself and Pate and I think O’Loughlin is still only 21 seconds behind, so it is anybody’s race.
“O’Loughlin attacked quite a lot today but never got more than a few metres. I was on him most of the time. Pate actually got away in the last kilometre but I closed the gap halfway. O’Loughlin jumped again and I managed to get onto him, that closed the gap up for me. There is still a long way to go but fortunately I have a very strong team so that will help. But it is going to be tough.”
“We isolated Evans pretty much from the word go this afternoon. That was the aim. I was surprised that group came back to us but we were able to get away from him later on. It was actually an attack by O’Loughlin which got us away from him. Evans nearly got back across to us but didn’t quite make it over…my team-mate Chris Newton was on his wheel and he was able to jump across and help us drive it along. I also had a team-mate up the road, Evan Oliphant, and he came back to help us too. We were able to drive it along and got some time on him.”
The race continues today with the penultimate stage, a mainly flat 168 kilometre race to Clara. House, Pate, Hegreberg, O’Loughlin and Evans are all within 38 seconds of each other and so this suspenseful, eventful FBD Insurance Rás is shaping up to what should be a spectacular finale.
How it happened:
A couple of hours after the end of the team time trial, the riders were back in action in the FBD Insurance Rás, riding the first dual stage in many years. The afternoon race started at 3 pm and took them 83 kilometres to Westport via some hilly and very scenic roads.
There were 122 starters for the stage. Missing was John O’Shea (Ireland Murphy & Gunn/Newlyn Group), who chose not to sign on, while a number of other riders got eliminated after finishing outside the time limit for the time trial.
This number included Conor Murphy (Ireland Grant Thornton), who lost contact with his team early on in the test and trailed in quite far back. The obvious drawback of this was that the Ireland team would be down a man for the remainder of the race, making David O’Loughlin’s bid to win the FBD Insurance Rás much harder.
The hammer went down right after the start, causing an eighteen man group to go clear. The riders present were Chris Newton, Robin Sharman, Kristian House, Robert Partridge (all Britain Recycling.co.uk), David O’Loughlin, Paídi O’Brien, Roger Aiken (all Ireland Grant Thornton), Joe McDonnell (Australia FRF Couriers Caravel), Jehudi Schoonacker, Mark Cassidy (both Ireland M. Donnelly Sean Kelly), Morgan Fox (Ireland Murphy & Gunn/Newlyn Group), Morten Hegreberg (Norway Sparebanken Vest), Lukasz Modzelewski (Poland Legia Bazylisek), Danny Pate, Lucas Euser, Mike Friedman (all USA TIAA-CREF), yellow jersey Tommy Evans (Dublin IRC Usher Insulations) and Ciarán Power (Éireann Dan Morrissey).
They opened a gap of 27 seconds, at which point Paídi O’Brien, Roger Aiken, Mark Cassidy, Morgan Fox and Morten Hegreberg slipped back, and were mopped up by chasers Will Routley (Canada Symmetrics), Johannes Sickmüller and Fabian Brzezinski (Germany Stevens) plus Lukasz Modzelewski (Poland Legia Bazylisek). Strong crosswinds and exposed terrain had made things very difficult, the riders forming echelons and those at the back being squeezed out.
Hegreberg had started the stage fourth overall and so once he went back from the break, the Norwegian Sparebanken Vest team started driving the chase. Their progress was hampered by a bad crash involving Are Andresen, who clipped a wheel and broke his arm. He had started the day 15th overall, helping the squad secure its lead in the international teams’ classification, but unfortunately ended the day in hospital.
After about 20 kilometres of racing the hot pace up front and the strong winds had split the field into several groups. The leaders were 1 minute and 19 seconds ahead of a chase group which was approximately 20 riders big, Hegreberg in this section, while another group was a further 20 seconds in arrears.
Shortly afterwards, the leaders raced onto the slopes of the day’s first climb, the third category Tir na Cille. Lucas Euser (USA TIAA-CREF) had been dropped shortly before, leaving twelve up front, and while those at the back of the group were struggling to stay in contact, Ciarán Power simply rode away from the others towards the summit, collecting five points to add to his total in the King of the Mountains classification.
Joe McDonnell was next over, approximately seven seconds back, with Robin Sharman and Jehudi Schoonacker third and fourth across the prime line.
The gap went out to 1 minute and 26 seconds, but behind riders from the Britain Doncaster Stena Line, Norway Sparebanken Vest and Ireland Murphy and Gunn/Newlyn Group squads knuckled down to the chase and started to eat into their lead. The gap was down to 48 seconds heading up the day’s second climb, the category 3 Culliagh More (42.3 km), and this continued to fall once over the summit, where Power took top points from McDonnell, Friedman and Sharman. That put him level with mountains classification leader Peter Herzig (Australia FRF Couriers), who had missed the move.
With 33 kilometres remaining, eighteen riders were 28 seconds behind. They were Evan Oliphant (Britain Recycling.co uk), Paídi O’Brien, Ryan Connor (Ireland Grant Thornton), Wayne Randle, Mark Lovatt, Gavin Evans (all Britain Doncaster Stena Line), Peter McDonald, Peter Herzig (both Australia FRF Couriers Caravel), Benjamin Hill (Germany Stevens), Morgan Fox (Ireland Murphy & Gunn/Newlyn Group), Morten Hegreberg, Tamas Lengyel, Martin Prazdnovsky (all Norway Sparebanken Vest), Bartlomiej Matysiak (Poland Legia Bazylisek), Dan Bowman, Lucas Euser (USA TIAA-CREF), Alex Hagman (Surrey Racing League), Matthew Ward (Dublin Usher Insulations) and Bill Moore (Meath M. Donnelly), and these joined up just inside the 25 kilometres to go marker.
Six riders then attacked, namely Evan Oliphant (Britain Recycling.co.uk), Wayne Randle (Britain Doncaster Stena Line), Martin Prazdnovsky (Norway Sparebanken Vest), Lukasz Modzelewski (Poland Legia Bazylisek), Mike Friedman (USA A TIAA-CREF) and Ciarán Power (Éireann Dan Morrissey). And while Ryan Connor (Ireland Grant Thornton) and Matthew Ward (Dublin IRC Usher Insulations) both had team leaders David O’Loughlin and Tommy Evans in the group behind, they too came across with Jehudi Schoonacker for company.
The latter then attacked with about 15 kilometres to go, Power and Connor joining him and working well together to open a good lead. At this point a group containing Tommy Evans and all of the race favourites were 1 minute and 27 seconds back, the yellow jersey coming under pressure as the other contenders for overall honours started attacking him.
O’Loughlin, Pate and House got clear in a small group but Evans started to close the gap. However a combination of tiredness and the effects of a broken spoke/rubbing wheel suffered earlier in the stage started to take its toll and he couldn’t quite rejoin the others. Newton had been on his wheel and jumped across, putting in important work to try to help House’s group extract as much time over Evans as was possible. Evan Oliphant also had the same goal and he sat up from the second group on the road, going back to his team-mates and helping to drive the pace.
That left Randle, Prazdnovsky, Modzelewski, Friedman, Hagman and Ward in the group chasing the three leaders. However they were not really making an impression and so those in the front group were able to fight it out for the stage win between them. Connor jumped early but Power covered the attack, the Waterford rider then kicking for the line and holding off Schoonacker to take his second stage win of the race.
Modzelewski outsprinted Ward, Randle and Prazdnovsky for fourth, 42 seconds back, while Friedman and Hagaman finished slightly adrift. The next group home was led in by Pate 1 minute and 10 seconds after Power’s win, with big GC challengers Hegreberg, House and O’Loughlin plus Bartlomiej Maysiak (Poland Legia Bazylisek) also in the same time. Crucially, Evans came in a further 46 seconds later, the time difference seeing him slip back to fifth overall. He ended the day 38 seconds off the lead and is likely to find it very difficult to get back up to the top before the race ends on Sunday.
That leaves House, Pate, Hegreberg and O’Loughlin as the main contenders for the final race victory. The first two are tied on time at the top of the general classification, while Hegreberg and O’Loughlin are 12 and 21 seconds back respectively. Once again, the war of attrition had thinned down the list of those in with a chance of winning, but things remain close enough to guarantee a very interesting final two stages.
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FBD Insurance Rás (2.2)
Stage 6, team time trial, An Cheathrú Rua – final finishing order :
International team:
1, Britain Recycling.co.uk, 31 mins 13 secs (= no time penalty)
2, USA TIAA-CREF, 31 mins 54 secs (+ 15 secs)
3, Norway Sparebanken Vest, 32 mins 1 secs (+20 secs)
4, Poland Legia Bazylisek, 32 mins 23 secs (+25 secs)
5, Australia FRF Couriers, 32 mins 26 secs (+30 secs)
6, Ireland Grant Thornton, 32 mins 28 secs (+ 35 secs)
County team:
1, Dublin IRC Usher Insulations, 33 mins 17 secs (= no time penalty)
2, Meath MyHome.ie Cycleways.com, 34 mins 26 secs (+15 secs)
3, Kildare Murphy, 34 mins 38 secs (+20 secs)
4, Kerry Earl of Desmond, 35 mins 15 secs (+25 secs)
5, Meath M. Donnelly, 35 mins 36 secs (+30 secs)
6, Cork Murray Ford Developments, 35 mins 54 secs (+35 secs)
General classification after stage 6 TTT:
1, Tommy Evans (Dublin IRC Usher Insulations) 20 hours 12 mins 58 secs
2, Kristian House (Britain Recycling.co.uk) at 8 secs
3, Danny Pate (USA TIAA-CREF) same time
4, Morten Hegreberg (Norway Sparebanken Vest) at 20 secs
5, David O’Loughlin (Ireland Grant Thornton) at 29 secs
6, Simon Kelly (Ireland Murphy & Gunn/Newlyn Group) at 1 min 33 secs
7, Peter Herzig (Australia FRF Couriers Caravel) at 1 min 39 secs
8, Brian Kenneally (MyHome.ie/Cycleways.com) at 4 mins 48 secs
9, Wayne Randle (Britain 2) at 5 mins 23 secs
10, Robin Sharman (Britain Recycling.co.uk) at 6 mins 45 secs
11, Bartlomiej Matysiak (Poland Legia Bazylisek) at 6 mins 59 secs
12, Mike Friedman (USA TIAA-CREF) at 7 mins 17 secs
13, Greg Reian (Canada Symmetrics) same time
14, Chris Newton (Britain Recycling.co.uk) at 7 mins 22 secs
15, Are Andresen (Norway Sparebanken Vest) at 7 mins 45 secs
Stage 7, An Ceathrú Rua – Westport:
1, Ciarán Power (Éireann Dan Morrissey) 83 kilometres in 1 hour 55 mins 21 secs (43.17 kph)
2, Jehudi Schoonacker (Ireland M. Donnelly Sean Kelly) same time
3, Ryan Connor (Ireland Grant Thornton) at 5 secs
4, Lukasz Modzelewski (Poland Legia Bazylisek) at 42 secs
5, Matthew Ward (Dublin IRC Usher Insulations)
6, Wayne Randle (Britain Doncaster Stena Line)
7, Martin Prazdnovsky (Norway Sparebanken Vest) all same time
8, Mike Friedman (USA TIAA-CREF) at 45 secs
9 Alex Hagman (Surrey Racing League) at 50 secs
10, Danny Pate (USA TIAA-CREF) at 1 min 10 secs
11, Morten Hegreberg (Norway Sparebanken Vest)
12, Kristian House (Britain Recycling.co.uk)
13, Bartlomiej Matysiak (Poland Legia Bazylisek)
14, David O’Loughlin (Ireland Grant Thornton) all same time
15, Evan Oliphant (Britain Recycling.co.uk) at 1 min 34 secs
Primes:
Category 3 at Tir na Cille (26.6 km)
1, Ciarán Power (Éireann Dan Morrissey) 5 pts
2, Joe McDonnell (Australia FRF Couriers Caravel) 4
3, Robin Sharman (Britain Recycling.co.uk) 3
4, Jehudi Schoonacker (Ireland M. Donnelly Sean Kelly) 2
Category 3 climb at Culliagh More (42.3 km):
1, Ciarán Power (Éireann Dan Morrissey) 5
2, Joe McDonnell (Australia FRF Couriers Caravel) 4
3, Mike Friedman (USA TIAA-CREF) 3
4, Robin Sharman (Britain Recycling.co.uk) 2
County rider:
1, Matthew Ward (Dublin IRC Usher Insulations) 1 hour 56 mins 3 secs
2, Tommy Evans (Dublin IRC Usher Insulations) at 1 min 14 secs
3, Bill Moore (Meath M. Donnelly) at 1 min 21 secs
Cotter Hoose CI Category 2:
1, Mark McLeavey (Dublin Eurocycles Eurobaby) 2 hours 38 secs
2, John McCarthy (Kerry Earl of Desmond) same time
3, Gary McNulty (Dublin Dundrum Town Centre) at 10 mins 5 secs
International team:
1, Ireland Grant Thornton, 5 hours 49 mins 21 secs
2, Norway Sparebanken Vest, at 30 secs
3, USA TIAA-CREF, at 40 secs
4, Britain Recycling.co.uk, at 1 min 22 secs
5, Australia FRF Couriers, at 2 mins 15 secs
County team:
1, Kildare Murphy Surveyors, 6 hours 1 min 54 secs
2, Meath MyHome.ie Cycleways.com, same time
3, Dublin IRC Usher Insulations, at 2 mins 9 secs
4, Meath M. Donnelly, at 6 mins 51 secs
5, Kerry Earl of Desmond, at 10 mins 5 secs
General classification:
1, Kristian House (Britain Recycling.co.uk) 22 hours 9 mins 37 secs
2, Danny Pate (USA TIAA-CREF) same time
3, Morten Hegreberg (Norway Sparebanken Vest) at 12 secs
4, David O’Loughlin (Ireland Grant Thornton) at 21 secs
5, Tommy Evans (Dublin IRC Usher Insulations) at 38 secs
6, Peter Herzig (Australia FRF Couriers) at 38 secs
6, Simon Kelly (Ireland Murphy & Gunn/Newlyn Group) at 2 mins 18 secs
8, Wayne Randle (Britain Doncaster Stena Line) at 4 mins 47 secs
9, Brian Kenneally (Meath MyHome.ie/Cycleways) a 5 mins 33 secs
10, Mike Friedman (USA TIAA-CREF) at 6 mins 44 secs
11, Ciarán Power (Éireann Dan Morrissey) at 6 mins 52 secs
12, Robin Sharman (Britain Recycling.co.uk) at 7 mins 23 secs
13, Martin Prazdnovsky (Poland Legia Bazylisek) at 7 mins 36 secs
14, Chris Newton (Britain Recycling.co.uk) at 8 mins
15, Robert Partridge (Britain Recycling.co.uk) at 8 mins 34 secs
Points:
1, Morten Hegreberg (Norway Sparebanken Vest) 40 pts
2, Lukasz Modzelewski (Poland Legia Bazylisek) 40
3, Chris Newton (Britain Recycling.co.uk) 39
4, Tommy Evans (Dublin IRC Usher Insulations) 39
5, Bartlomiej Matysiak (Poland Legia Bazylise ek) 37
6, Ciarán Power (Éireann Dan Morrissey) 35
Mountains :
1, Ciarán Power (Éireann Dan Morrissey) 52
2, Peter Herzig (Australia FRF Couriers Caravel) 52
3, Lukasz Modzelewski (Poland Legia Bazylisek) 23
4, Mark Lovatt (Britain Doncaster Stena Line) 22
5, Morten Hegreberg (Norway Sparebanken Vest) 20
6, Danny Pate (USA TIAA-CREF) 16
Ben McKenna Trophy Under 23 rider:
1, Bartlomiej Matysiak (Poland Legia Bazylisek) 22 hours 16 mins 28 secs
2, Robert Partridge (Britain Recycling.co.uk) at 1 min 43 secs
3, Paídi O’Brien (Britain Recycling.co.uk) at 2 min 13 secs
4, Ryan Connor (Ireland Grant Thornton) a 2 mins 36 secs
5, Lukasz Modzelewski (Poland Legia Bazylisek) at 3 mins 38 secs
County rider:
1, Tommy Evans (Dublin IRC Usher Insulations) 22 hours 10 mins 15 secs
2, John McCarthy (Kerry Earl of Desmond) at 11 mins 28 secs
3, Michael Fitzgerald (Cork Murray Ford Developers) at 16 mins 19 secs
4, Brian Kenneally (Meath MyHome.ie/Cycleways) at 18 mins 14 secs
5, Mehall Fitzgerald (Meath MyHome.ie/Cycleways) at 20 mins 47 secs
Cotter Hoose CI Category 2:
1, John McCarthy (Kerry Earl of Desmond) 22 hours 21 mins 43 secs
2, Myles Kirby (Dublin Dundrum Town Centre) at 25 mins 2 secs
3, Daire McCaughley (Dublin Wheelers All Systems) at 28 mins 34 secs
4, Gary McNulty (Dublin Dundrum Town Centre) at 28 mins 39 secs
5, Mark McLeavey (Dublin Eurocycles Eurobaby) at 38 mins 20 secs
International team:
1, Norway Sparebanken Vest, 67 hours 6 mins 30 secs
2, Britain Recycling.co.uk, at 2 mins 5 secs
3, Australia FRF Couriers, at 6 mins 22 secs
4, USA TIAA-CREF, at 7 mins 1 sec
5, Ireland Grant Thornton, at 8 mins 19 secs
County team:
1, Meath MyHome.ie Cycleways.com, 67 hours 57 mins 46 secs
2, Dublin IRC Usher Insulations, at 1 min 31 secs
3, Kildare Murphy Surveyors, at 13 mins 11 secs
4, Kerry Earl of Desmond, at 17 mins 43 secs
5, Cork Murray Ford Developments, at 22 hours 51 secs
