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Richardson Wins, O’Loughlin Unlucky, McCann Holds Yellow
May 22, 2008, 20:30
Day five was one of mixed fortunes for the Irish competitors on this year’s FBD Insurance Rás, with David O’Loughlin puncturing whilst in the running for the stage victory and David McCann successfully defending his race leader’s yellow jersey.
McCann faced a serious threat to his jersey when two general classification contenders made it into the day’s crucial break. Simon Richardson (Britain Plowman Craven) and Kit Gilham had started the day are major threats to the yellow jersey, having started the day 2’35 and 2’41 back in 25th and 26th place overall.
They, David O’Loughlin (Ireland Pezula Racing) and Patrick Kos (Netherlands) went clear before Farranfore, the first of five climbs on the stage. The group opened up a maximum lead of 4 minutes 45 seconds over the main bunch, working well together over the tough terrain. And although the gap did narrow towards the finish, Richardson and O’Loughlin had enough left in reserve to raise their game, ramp up their speed and finish over a minute clear.
“It was a beautiful stage, I loved every minute of it,” said the Englishman afterwards. “It was super hard because of the wind and the climbs themselves, because of the wind, were almost nullified. I knew that with the time gaps we had, I was possibly looking at yellow at the end of today, so I gave it everything.
“It was super unfortunate that David punctured at the end…it is not the best way to win a stage, off the back of someone else’s misfortune. I really don’t know what his finish is like [if it had come to a sprint]. I think he had a lot of riding left in him, though, so it would have been tough.”
Although the riders were clear for a long time during the stage, he said that towards the end he became relatively confident that they could stay away. “With about 30 or 40 kilometres to go, we were really not riding very fast and yet the time gap was not really coming down. I knew I had a couple of gears left and I had hoped that once we started riding, that they would struggle to bring us back.”
Vos cracked 36 kilometres from the end and then, eleven kilometres later, Richardson attacked. O’Loughlin bided his time, continuing to ride along with Gilham, then bridged across alone several kilometres later.
As he had done when winning the Shay Elliott Memorial earlier this year, he was clear for much of the day and was looking to use his fast finish to take the victory. However that went out the window when he punctured inside the final three kilometres. He got a spare bike but didn’t have enough time to get back to the front.
“I drilled it hard as soon as I got the bike change,” he said. “I was closing on him but I just did not have enough road at the end so I sort of gave up in the last few hundred metres. Obviously I am very disappointed.”
He’s determined that he and the team will keep trying. “Ciaran (Power) was up there in a sprint today and he is in good form. He will be fighting for a stage win as well the rest of the week. Hopefully we will have more aggressive riding from here on and hopefully we will come away with a stage win.
“The Pezulas have been great this year. They gave us a good investment in Irish cycling and that helped greatly towards my track programme for the Olympics. It is all really positive and it is good for Irish cycling.”
Richardson had started the day well placed overall and so was clearly a concern to McCann. However he finished 54 seconds off the yellow jersey, moving up to sixth overall but still needing more time. He’s likely to try again in the remaining three days, but the 2004 Rás winner is relatively confident.
“I was not too concerned when the break went away,” said McCann. “In some ways it might suit me to have another guy from a different team close behind but not leading. I was not really that worried when the time went up because I was pretty confident we could bring it back when we needed to.”
There is likely to be a big showdown on Saturday. He feels up to the task. “Those are the hills where I have won the Ras before – all around the Wicklow Mountains. I have won stages there and I have won the Shay Elliott, so this is my racing territory. I am looking forward to those hills.”
Before then, he will have to get through tomorrow’s 180 kilometre stage from Skibbereen to Clonmel. Six riders are within a minute or less of his race lead and there’s plenty of opportunity for them to attack. However he’s got confidence in the other riders in the green jersey.
“Robin Seymour, Micheal Concannon, Paul Griffin and Roger Aiken…on paper you might not think it, but this is one of the strongest teams I have been on. They are riding really well. They are just phenomenal. They are making my job a lot easier.”
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FBD Insurance Rás (2.2), May 18 – 25:
Stage 5, Tralee to Skibereen:
1, Simon Richardson (Britain Plowman Craven) 141 kilometres in 3 hours 35 mins 1 sec
2, David O’Loughin (Ireland Pezula Racing) same time
3, Mateusz Komar (Poland national team) at 1 min 41 secs
4, Ciarán Power (Ireland Pezula Racing)
5, Rafal Ratajczyk (Poland national team)
6, Ken Hanson (Isle of Man Microgaming Dolan)
7, Morten Hegreberg (Norway Sparebanken Vest)
8, Dean Downing (Britain Stena Line Rapha Condor Recycling.co.uk)
9, Renaud Pioline (France Provence Alpes Cote d’Azur)
10, Ciarán Cassidy (Meath Cycleways@53degreesnorth)
11, Eugene Moriarty (Meath MyHome.ie/BDBC)
12, Blazej Janiaczyk (Poland national team)
13, Simon Kelly (Dublin IRC Usher Insulations)
14, Rene Birkenfeld (Germany Stevens von Hacht)
15, S. M. Razaei Khormizi (Iran Islamic Azad University)
KOM Category 2 at Farranfore:
1, Patrick Kos (Netherlands) 10 pts
2, David O’Loughlin (Ireland Pezula Racing) 8
3, Simon Richardson (Britain Plowman Craven) 6
4, Kit Gilham (Britain Kinesis) 4
5, Jaroslaw Dabrowski (Poland national team) 3
6, Robin Seymour (Ireland national team) 1
KOM Category 2 climb at Ladies’ View:
1, Kit Gilham (Britain Kinesis) 10
2, Patrick Kos (Netherlands) 8
3, David O’Loughlin (Pezula Racing) 6
4, Simon Richardson (Britain Plowman Craven) 4
5, S. M. Razaei Khormizi (Iran Islamic Azad University) 3
6, Jaroslaw Dabrowski (Poland national team) 1
KOM Category 2 climb at Moll’s Gap (55.5 km)
1, Kit Gilham (Britain Kinesis) 10 pts
2, Patrick Kos (Netherlands) 8
3, David O’Loughlin (Ireland Pezula Racing) 6
4, Simon Richardson (Britain Plowman Craven) 4
5, Ciarán Power (Ireland Pezula Racing) 3
6, Morten Hegreberg (Norway Sparebanken Vest) 1
KOM Category 2 climb at Turner’s Rock (83.1 km):
1, Kit Gilham (Britain Kinesis) 10
2, Simon Richardson (Britain Plowman Craven) 8
3, Patrick Kos (Netherlands) 6
4, David O’Loughlin (Ireland Pezula Racing) 4
5, S. Mostafa Razaei Khormizi (Iran Islamic Azad University) 3
6, Ciarán Power (Pezula Racing) 1
KOM Category 3 climb at Derrycreha (95.9km)
1, Kit Gilham (Britain Kinesis) 5
2, Simon Richardson (Britain Plowman Craven) 4
3, Patrick Kos (Netherlands) 3
4, David O’Loughlin (Pezula Racing) 2
KOM Category 2 climb at Barnageehy (119 km)
1, Simon Richardson (Britain Plowman Craven) 10
2, Kit Gilham (Britain Kinesis) 8
3, David O’Loughlin (Pezula Racing) 6
4, Wojchiech Dybel (Poland) 4
5, Patrick Vos (Netherlands) 3
6, Benny de Schrooder (Ireland An Post M. Donnelly Grant Thornton Sean Kelly) 1
County rider:
1, Ciarán Cassidy (Meath Cycleways@53degreesnorth)
CI Category 2 rider:
1, Mark Power (Tipperary Dan Morrissey) 3 hours 36 mins 42 secs
International team:
1, Ireland Pezula Racing, 10 hours 48 mins 25 secs
2, Britain Plowman Craven, same time
3, Poland national team, at 1 min 41 secs
County team:
1, Meath MyHome.ie/BDBC, 10 hours 50 mins 6 secs
2, Dublin IRC Usher Insulations
3, Dublin McNally Swords, both same time
General classification after five stages:
1, David McCann (Ireland national team) 17 hours 59 mins 17 secs
2, Chris Newton (Britain Stena Line Rapha Condor Recycling.co.uk) same time
3, Roger Aiken (Ireland national team) at 6 secs
4, Rob Partridge (Britain Stena Line Rapha Condor Recycling.co.uk) at 7 secs
5, Alex Higham (Britain Plowman Craven) at 9 secs
6, Simon Richardson (Britain Plowman Craven) at 54 secs
7, Andrew Bye (Britain Surrey Racing League) at 56 secs
8, Dean Downing (Britain Stene Line Rapha Condor Recycling.co.uk) at 1 min 4 secs
9, Stephen Gallagher (Ireland An Post M. Donnelly Grant Thornton Sean Kelly) at 1 min 5 secs
10, S. M. Razaei Khormizi (Iran Islamic Azad University) at 1 min 7 secs
11, Kieran Page (Ireland Pezula Racing) at 1 min 11 secs
12, Benny de Schrooder (Ireland An Post M. Donnelly Grant Thornton Sean Kelly) at 1 min 25 secs
13, Mateusz Komar (Poland national team) at 1 min 26 secs
14, Paídi O’Brien (Ireland An Post M. Donnelly Grant Thornton Sean Kelly) at 1 min 29 secs
15, Amir Zargari (Iran Islamic Azad University) same time
Points:
1, Dean Downing (Britain Stena Line Rapha Condor Recycling.co.uk) 45 points
2, Mateusz Komar (Poland national team) 41
3, David McCann (Ireland national team) 29
4, Ken Hanson (Isle of Man Microgaming Dolan) 29
5, Simon Richardson (Britain Plowman Craven) 27
Mountains:
1, Kit Gilham (Britain Kinesis) 49
2, Simon Richardson (Britain Plowman Craven) 41
3, Patrick Kos (Netherlands) 38
4, David O’Loughlin (Ireland Pezula Racing) 32
5, S. Razaei Khormizi (Iran Islamic Azad University) 29
Under 23:
1, Dale Appleby (Britain Stena Line Rapha Condor Recycling.co.uk) 18 hours 46 secs
2, Martin Grashev (Bulgaria Nessebar) at 7 secs
3, Ole Quast (Germany Stevens von Hacht) at 9 secs
4, Maurice Schreurs (Netherlands) at 1 min 20 secs
5, Denis Dunworth (Kerry Total Cleaning Supplies) at 1 min 28 secs
County rider:
1, Stephen O’Sullivan (Meath MyHome.ie/BDBC) 18 hours 2 mins 14 secs
2, Denis Dunworth (Kerry Total Cleaning Supplies) same time
3, Joe Fenlon (Tipperary Dan Morrissey) at 28 secs
4, Peter Hawkins (Dublin IRC Usher Insulations) at 32 secs
5, Neill Delahaye (Dublin IRC Usher Insulations) at 2 mins 55 secs
CI Category 2:
1, Brendan Lacey (Kerry Total Cleaning Supplies) 18 hours 17 mins 9 secs
2, Graham Hurley (Dublin Dundrum Town Centre) at 55 secs
3, Mark Power (Tipperary Dan Morrissey) at 1 min 53 secs
4, Stephen Halpin (Dublin McNally Swords) at 3 mins 6 secs
5, Kevin Donagher (Dublin McNally Swords) at 3 mins 45 secs
International team:
1, Britain Stena Line Rapha Condor Recycling.co.uk, 53 hours 57 mins 39 secs
2, Ireland An Post M. Donnelly Grant Thornton Sean Kelly, at 1min 24 secs
3, Ireland national team, at 2 mins 29 secs
4, Britain Plowman Craven, at 2 mins 44 secs
5, Poland national team, at 4 mins 46 secs
County team:
1, Dublin IRC Usher Insulations, 54 hours 18 mins 47 secs
2, Meath MyHome.ie/BDBC, at 10 mins 23 secs
3, Kerry Total Cleaning Supplies, at 18 mins 39 secs
4, Tipperary Dan Morrissey, at 29 mins 34 secs
5, Dublin McNally Swords, at 35 mins 43 secs
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