Race leader Clemens Fankhauser expressed some doubts on Thursday about whether he could hold the An Post Rás yellow jersey on Friday's stage to Carrick-on-Suir, saying he believed some of the other general classification contenders would reach the summit finish of Seskin Hill ahead of him, but instead the Austrian bolstered his advantage with a fine ride.
The Austria Tirol Cycling rider finished 10th behind the impressive solo victor Markus Eibegger (Azerbaijan Synergy Baku Cycling) but, crucially, either matched or took time out of all the overall contenders.
Irishman Sean Downey (Ireland An Post Chainreaction Sean Kelly) was the only one of those contenders able to stay with him on the climb, with the riders in second and third overall, Alex Peters and his Britain Madison Genesis team-mate Ian Bibby, losing 14 and 22 seconds respectively.
They had been the biggest threats, but are now 25 and 51 seconds behind, with Nic Hamilton (Canada) sandwiched between them in third overall.
Downey's fine performance saw him move from eighth to sixth, 58 seconds back, while fellow Irishmen Mark Dowling (Meath Dunboyne DID) and Eoin Morton (Dublin Central UCD) had very promising rides with seventh and eighth on the stage.
“So far we could defend it so we are quite happy,” said Fankhauser, a quietly-spoken 28- year-old who has ridden consistently well all week. “I had a very strong team and thanks to them I was never really under pressure on the stage except for the final climb.”
The 167.9km stage from Clonakilty was marked by a number of breaks, most notably a nine- man move after half an hour of racing. It contained Eibegger, Canadian Remi Pelletier Roy and three other foreign riders, as well as Irish competitors Simon Ryan (Tipperary South), Damien Shaw (Cork City Aquablue), Ronan McLaughlin (Donegal Inishowen Gateway McCafe) and Ian Richardson (Dublin Central UCD Arrow).
Attack They opened a lead of more than three minutes over Fankhauser and his team, who were leading the chase, but Eibegger and Pelletier Roy were frustrated with a lack of co-operation up front and attacked 70km into the stage.
They opened a maximum lead of over six minutes but when the peloton closed to within one minute with 25km remaining, their chances looked very doubtful. However they got a boost when several riders got across and, after having a chance to ease back for several kilometres, Eibegger floored it at the bottom of the climb and gave it everything to the top.
He was six seconds ahead of the Briton Owain Doull (Ireland An Post Chain Reaction) and was a further second ahead of the former leader Patrick Bevin (New Zealand National Team).
Today sees the penultimate stage to Baltinglass.
