CYCLING:IN WHAT was a notable display of sheer-minded stubbornness, David O'Loughlin and last year's FBD Rás champion Simon Richardson fired repeated salvos on yesterday's third stage of the race, spending almost the entire 171km in front of the peloton and, finally, fighting it out for the stage win in Oughterard.
O’Loughlin, inspired by a day racing over his usual training roads and passing through his hometown of Cong, dug deep to win his third Rás stage.
He hit the jets in the finishing sprint, thundering clear of Richardson, the Swedish rider Fredrik Johansson (Sweden-Team Sprocket Pro) and Richardson’s Sigmasport Specialized team-mate, the Dutchman Wouter Sybrandy.
What’s more, he ended the day clad in the pink jersey of best climber, and jumped from 20th to ninth in the general classification.
Stage one winner Dan Craven (Britain Rapha Condor-Sharp) continues to lead overall, seven seconds ahead of his nearest rival, but O’Loughlin has moved to one minute 45 seconds of his yellow jersey. The 17 seconds gained was small, but psychologically significant.
“I think the legs are coming around,” he said, clearly satisfied with how things turned out. “I haven’t had much racing this year so far. Everyone was saying to me this morning, ‘ah, local roads’ and slagging me, but it was more that there was a cross/tailwind out there and we had missed a day of racing yesterday when the stage was stopped. We said that we’d get some racing going and see how things would turn out; they worked out pretty well in the end.”
O’Loughlin was in the thick of the action all day, getting into a breakaway group almost immediately after the start in Carrick-on-Shannon and then forging on ahead with Richardson 16km into the stage. Throwing caution to the wind, the duo worked together until they were joined by 18 others 51km later.
Also present were a number of Irish riders, including Neil Delahaye, Dominic Jelfs, Seán Lacey, Stephen O’Sullivan and Tim Barry.
However, the group proved to be too big, and following an attack by Sybrandy, he, O’Loughlin, Richardson, Johansson and Delahaye pushed onwards after 103km of racing.
Passing through his hometown of Cong and then looping out along the extraordinary landscape around Lough na Fooey, O’Loughlin gobbled up top points at the mountain primes of Gowlaun and Tír na Cille.
He spurred on his breakaway companions, telling them that the tough, winding roads would enable them to fend off the inevitable chase behind, and that’s how things worked out.
In the end, his local knowledge also helped him in the sprint.
“I know the bridge (in Oughterard) well, so I came up from the inside with a nice line to split Richardson and Sybrandy up. He (Sybrandy) led the sprint out and I just went for it, leaving it as late as possible and then jumping with about 150 metres to go.”
Richardson was a little disappointed with second, but knows that the strong showing indicates he will be competitive as the race goes on.
With a deficit of just one minute 46 seconds, he too is in the hunt for the final yellow jersey.
“I think in total I spent one kilometre in the peloton today, so it definitely was a big old stage,” he said, showing a bit of pride in their aggressive display.
Stage Three details
Stage Three: 1, David OLoughlin (Belgium An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly) 171 kilometres in 3 hours 49 mins 50 secs; 2, S. Richardson (Britain Sigmasport Specialised) at 1 sec; 3, F. Johansson (Sweden - Team Sprocket Pro) same time; 4, W. Sybrandy (Britain Sigmasport Specialized) at 4 secs; 5, J. Degenkolb (Germany Thuringer Energie) at 17 secs; 6, P. Williams (Motorpoint Marshalls Pasta); 7, P. Lavery (Dublin Murphy Gunn/Newlyn); 8, D. Craven (Britain Rapha Condor Sharp); 9, S. Williams (Ireland Subway National Team); 10, M. OReilly (Limerick BDO Get Back); 11, P. Ghyllebert(Belgium An Post Sean Kelly); 12, D. Pell(Australia Drapac Porsche); 13, L. Schadlich(Germany Thuringer Energie); 14, M. Wiesiak(Japan - Nippo); 15, M. Kikuchi(Japan - Nippo) all same time
Primes: Gowlaun KOM, category 2, km 137.2: 1, David OLoughlin (Belgium An Post Sean Kelly) 10 pts; 2, S. Richardson (Britain Sigmasport Specialised) 8; 3, F. Johansson (Sweden - Team Sprocket Pro) 6; 4, W. Sybrandy (Britain Sigmasport Specialised) 4; 5, N. Delahaye (Ireland Subway National Team) 3; 6, J. Dempsey (Tipperary Dan Morrissey) 1. Category 2 KOM at Tir na Cille, km 150.9: 1, David OLoughlin (Belgium An Post Sean Kelly) 10; 2, S. Richardson (Britain Sigmasport Specialised) 8; 3, W. Sybrandy (Britain Sigmasport Specialised) 6; 4, F. Johansson (Sweden - Team Sprocket Pro) 4; 5, J. Degenkolb (Germany Thuringer Energie) 3; 6, D. Craven (Britain Rapha Condor Sharp) 1. County rider: 1, Philip Lavery (Dublin Murphy Gunn/Newlyn); 2, M. OReilly (Limerick BDO Get Back); 3, A. Aherne (Tipperary Dan Morrissey) both same time.
General classification after stage 3: 1, Dan Craven (Britain Rapha Condor Sharp) 7 hours 18 mins 19 secs; 2, M. McNally (Belgium An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly) at 7 secs; 3, K. Gilham (Britain Sigmasport Specialized) at 11 secs; 4, M. Kikuchi (Japan - Nippo) at 12 secs; 5, D. Pell (Australia Drapac Porsche) same time; 6, L. Schadlich (Germany Thuringer Energie) at 16 secs; 7, A. Roche (Motorpoint Marshalls Pasta); 8, A. Wetterhall (Sweden - Team Sprocket Pro) both same time; 9, D. OLoughlin (Belgium An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly) at 1 min 45 secs; 10, S. Richardson (Britain Sigmasport Specialized) at 1 min 46 secs.
