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Wetterhall Wins FBD Insurance Rás, Degenkolb Scoops Final Stage
May 30, 2010, 19:56
Benefiting from some strong work by his Sweden Team Sprocket squad, Alexander Wetterhall (Team Sprocket Pro) today became the first Scandinavian winner in the history of the FBD Insurance Rás.
The 24 year old had a less hectic day than yesterday’s leg in the Wicklow mountains, being able to keep close tabs on his main rivals on what was a much flatter stage, and rolling home as part of a 42 man main bunch.
German sprinter John Degenkolb (Germany Thuringer Energie) nabbed his second stage win of the week when he showed superb speed inside the final 300 metres, hitting the line first in the spectator-thronged town of Skerries.
Britons Matt Cronshaw (Britain Rapha Condor Sharp) and Peter Williams (Motorpoint Marshalls Pasta) were second and third in the 140 kilometre leg, while Chris Coyle (Mayo Castlebar Western Edge) was best of the Irish in tenth.
The bunch finish saw Wettenhall preserve his 59 second lead over Peter Williams (Motorpoint Marshalls Pasta) and his one minute 32 second advantage over stage one winner Dan Craven (Britain Rapha Condor Sharp).
Irishman Connor McConvey impressed greatly with his fourth place, especially as this is the longest stage race he has ever done. In fact, the former mountainbike rider had never ridden a multi-day event until this year, and so he has really come on well.
His fourth place overall and win in the best young rider competition was part of a very strong campaign by the Irish-sponsored An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly team. The squad took stage wins via David O’Loughlin’s triumph in Oughterard last Tuesday and Mark Cassidy’s victory in Kilcullen yesterday, as well as the overall international team classification.
In addition to that, Cassidy sealed overall victory in the King of the Mountains award today when he went clear 30 kilometres after the start in Kilcullen. He joined up with compatriot Neil Delahaye and double FBD Rás champion Chris Newton (Britain Rapha Condor Sharp), Kit Gilham (Britain Sigmasport Specialised), Bastian Burgel (Germany Thuringer Energie), Josef Kugler (Austria Arbö KTM-Gebrüder Weis) and Ian Bibby (Motorpoint Marshalls Pasta), and these opened up a decent lead over the main bunch.
Cassidy took top points on the day’s first climb, the category three ascent of Pluckhimin, and this moved him five points clear of his team-mate David O’Loughlin in the KOM rankings.
Delahaye, Newton and Burgel attacked several kilometres later and while Cassidy chased hard to try to get back on, the front three pulled well together and moved further ahead. He nevertheless picked up fourth place on the Cross of the Cage climb, adding two points to his total and increasing his final advantage to seven points over O’Loughlin.
Newton attacked on the first of two 13.8 kilometre finishing laps and was still clear with eleven kilometres to go. 2008 FBD Rás champion Stephen Gallagher clipped across to him, but the duo were unable to hold off the peloton, making a bunch sprint the inevitable outcome.
Degenkolb had already taken Friday’s stage to Gorey but he seized the chance to nab another and thus seal his win in the points classification.
“It was a nice climb on the circuit. It was good for me - not so long and not so steep,” he said afterwards. “I had good legs today.”
Wetterhall was delighted with what was the biggest win of his career. “I also took the Swedish national time trial title,” he said, “but I think this is probably bigger. Today was good – my team rode very well and controlled things, so there were no moments of panic.”
McConvey was also satisfied with his showing. “I’m still learning as I have not been doing road racing for that long. This was the longest stage race I did. Next up for me is the under 23 Nations Cup Event in Canada…I fly out tomorrow . That’s very important for the country as we are trying to qualify for the world championships.”
Providing he recovers in time, his performances this week suggest that he should fare very well. Irish riders may not have taken the overall honours this time round, but with the performances of young competitors such as McConvey, Cassidy and Philip Lavery (Murphy and Gunn/Newlyn Group), there are good reasons to be upbeat about the future.
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FBD Insurance Rás, Ireland (2.2, May 23 – 30):
Stage 8, Kilcullen – Skerries:
1, John Degenkolb (Germany Thuringer Energie) 140 kilometres in 3 hours 13 mins 40 secs
2, Matt Cronshaw (Britain Rapha Condor Sharp)
3, Peter Williams (Motorpoint Marshalls Pasta)
4, Stuart Shaw (Australia Drapac Porsche)
5, Masaaki Kikuchi (Japan - Nippo)
6, Mark McNally (Belgium An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly)
7, Shane Archbold (New Zealand)
8, Mariusz Wiesiak (Japan - Nippo)
9, Lucas Schadlich (Germany Thuringer Energie)
10, Chris Coyle (Mayo Castlebar Western Edge )
11, Aaron Gate (New Zealand)
12, Wouter Sybrandy (Britain Sigmasport Specialized)
13, Adam Armstrong (Ireland Subway National Team)
14, Pieter Ghyllebert (Belgium An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly)
15, Josef Kugler (Austria Arbö KTM-Gebrüder Weis)
16, Connor McConvey (Belgium An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly) all same time
KOM category3 at Pluckhimin, km 85.1:
1, Mark Cassidy (Belgium An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly) 5pts
2, Neil Delahaye (Ireland Subway National Team) 4
3, Christopher Newton (Britain Rapha Condor Sharp) 3
4, Kit Gilham (Britain Sigmasport Specialized) 2
KOM 3 at Cross of the Cage (km 104.4):
1, Neil Delahaye (Ireland Subway National Team) 5 pts
2, Chris Newton (Britain Rapha Condor Sharp) 4
3, Bastian Burgel (Germany Thuringer Energie) 3
4, Mark Cassidy (Belgium An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly) 2
KOM cat 3 at Black Hills, km 117.6:
1, Christopher Newton (Britain Rapha Condor Sharp) 5pts
2, Bastian Burgel (Germany Thuringer Energie) 4
3, Neil Delahaye (Ireland Subway National Team) 3
4, Simon Richardson (Britain Sigmasport Specialized) 2
KOM cat 3 at Black Hills, km 131.4:
1, Christopher Newton (Britain Rapha Condor Sharp) 5pts
2, Stephen Gallagher (Britain Sigmasport Specialized) 4
3, Joseph Lewis (Australia Drapac Porsche) 3
4, Connor McConvey (Belgium An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly) 2
County rider:
1, Chris Coyle (Mayo Castlebar Western Edge) 3 hours 13 mins 4secs
2, Conor Murphy (Dublin Eurocycles)
3, Mark Dowling (Meath Engraveit.ie/Jade.ie) both same time
International team:
1, Germany Thuringer Energie, 9 hours 39 mins 12 secs
2, Belgium An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly
3, Britain Rapha Condor Sharp
4, Motorpoint Marshalls’ Pasta
5, Australia Drapac Porsche, both same time
County team:
1, Dublin Eurocycles, 9 hours 39 mins 50 secs
2, Tipperary Dan Morrissey
3, Mayo Castlebar Western Edge, both same time
4, Meath Engraveit.ie/Jade.ie, 9 hours 40 mins 28 secs
5, Limerick BDO Get Back, 9 hours 41 mins 6 secs
Final general classification:
1, Alexander Wetterhall (Sweden - Team Sprocket Pro) 24 hours 44 mins 13 secs
2, Peter Williams (Motorpoint Marshalls Pasta) at 59 secs
3, Dan Craven (Britain Rapha Condor Sharp) at 1 min 32 secs
4, Connor McConvey (Belgium An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly) at 1 min 45 secs
5, Jon Tiernan-Locke (Britain Rapha Condor Sharp) same time
6, Rob Partridge (Wales) at 1 min 49 secs
7, Pieter Ghyllebert (Belgium An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly) at 2 mins 4 secs
8, Joseph Lewis (Australia Drapac Porsche) at 2 mins 7 secs
9, John Degenkolb (Germany Thuringer Energie) at 2 mins 19 secs
10, Maximillan May (Germany Thuringer Energie) at 3 mins 41 secs
11, Jakob Steigmiller (Germany Thuringer Energie) at 4 mins 3 secs
12, Simon Richardson (Britain Sigmasport Specialized) at 4 mins 28 secs
13, Josef Kugler (Arbö KTM-Gebrüder Weis) at 4 mins 41 secs
14, John Anderson (Sweden - Team Sprocket Pro) at 6 mins 1 secs
15, David Pell (Australia Drapac Porsche) at 6 mins 7 secs
Selected:
17, Ryan Sherlock (Dublin Eurocycles – best county rider) at 6 mins 45 secs
Points classification:
1, John Degenkolb (Germany Thuringer Energie) 68 pts
2, Peter Williams (Motorpoint Marshalls Pasta) 63
3, Dan Craven (Britain Rapha Condor Sharp) 46
4, Wouter Sybrandy (Britain Sigmasport Specialized) 42
5, Pieter Ghyllebert (Belgium An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly) 39
Mountains classification:
1, Mark Cassidy (Belgium An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly) 64 pts
2, David O'Loughlin (Belgium An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly) 57
3, Fredrik Johansson (Sweden - Team Sprocket Pro) 54
4, Simon Richardson (Britain Sigmasport Specialized) 44
5, Jakob Steigmiller (Germany Thuringer Energie) 39
County rider classification:
1, Ryan Sherlock (Dublin Eurocycles) 24 hours 50 mins 58 secs
2, Thomas Martin (Dublin Eurocycles) at 3 mins 18 secs
3, Paul Griffin (Tipperary Dan Morrissey) at 4 mins 28 secs
4, Conor Murphy (Dublin Eurocycles) at 4 mins 52 secs
5, John Dempsey (Tipperary Dan Morrissey) at 5 mins 30 secs
Under 23 classification:
1, Connor McConvey (Belgium An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly) 24 hours 45 mins 58 secs
2, Joseph Lewis (Australia Drapac Porsche) at 22 secs
3, John Degenkolb (Germany Thuringer Energie) at 34 secs
4, Maximillan May (Germany Thuringer Energie) at 1 min 56 secs
5, Jakob Steigmiller (Germany Thuringer Energie) at 2 mins 18 secs
International teams classification:
1, Belgium An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly, 74 hours 14 mins 22 secs
2, Britain Rapha Condor Sharp, at 2 mins 50 secs
3, Germany Thuringer Energie, at 3 mins 40 secs
4, Sweden - Team Sprocket Pro, at 4 mins 59 secs
5, Motorpoint Marshalls Pasta, at 7 mins 37 secs
County teams classification:
1, Dublin Eurocycles, 74 hours 38 mins 26 secs
2, Tipperary Dan Morrissey, at 9 mins 18 secs
3, Limerick BDO Get BACk, at 52 mins 36 secs
4, Meath Engraveit.ie/Jade.ie, at 1 hour 3 mins 50 secs
5, Mayo Castlebar Western Edge, at 1 hour 3 mins 50 secs
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