CYCLING/RÁS: LANDING THE biggest win to date for the An Post M Donnelly Grant Thornton Seán Kelly team, Armagh rider Stephen Gallagher finished top of the international field in the FBD Insurance Rás yesterday. The 27-year-old came home alongside all of his main rivals on the concluding 130 kilometres leg from Newbridge to Skerries, while another Irish rider - Pezula Racing's David O'Loughlin - was best of four breakaway riders, winning the final stage.
Gallagher led the race after stage two, but then missed a crucial move, and the lead passed to team-mate Mark Cassidy. The latter, unfortunately, crashed out the following day, and while this affected the morale of the Irish-registered continental-team, they bounced back with a superb collective performance on Saturday.
Gallagher had started the mountainous stage to Roundwood some 10 seconds behind leader Simon Richardson (Britain Plowman Craven), but clever tactics and strong riding from the squad saw him and Daniel Lloyd join team-mates Páidí O'Brien and Benny de Schrooder in a large breakaway.
Roger Aiken (Ireland) was the only other rider from the top six to make it into the move, and with the An Post team driving hard to build their lead, the two ended the day top of general classification.
Gallagher then started the final stage one minute and 42 seconds ahead of Aiken and knew he simply had to stay in touch with his closest rivals to win the race.
"I had the yellow jersey earlier in the week but lost it," said Gallagher. "I was quietly confident that I could get it back, both because of the team that I had and because my form was quite good. I was never under too much pressure during the week and I was always holding back a little for these final two days."
O'Loughlin, team-mate Cameron Jennings, Evan Oliphant (Britain Plowman Craven) and Blazej Janiaczyk (Poland national team) got clear inside the first 20kms yesterday and eked out a lead of almost six minutes over the peloton. None of the four were a threat to Gallagher's jersey and were able to stay clear. O'Loughlin and Oliphant surged ahead with 20kms remaining and fought it out for the stage win, with the Mayo rider hitting the line a length clear.
Janiaczyk and Jennings came in 37 seconds later, while a further 39 seconds later Irish Pezula Racing rider Ciarán Power won the bunch sprint for fifth.
Despite a strong international line-up, three Irish riders held the yellow jersey: Gallagher, Mark Cassidy and David McCann. And McCann, Power and O'Loughlin took stage wins.
Other general classification prizes went to Dean Downing (Britain Stena Line Rapha Condor, points), Kit Gilham (Britain Kinesis, mountains), Dale Appleby (Britain Stena Line Rapha Condor, under-23), Stephen O'Sullivan (Meath MyHome.ie/BDBC, county rider) and Mark Power (Tipperary Dan Morrissey, Irish second-category rider).
Gallagher's Ireland An Post M Donnelly Grant Thornton line-up won the International team competition, while Dublin IRC Usher Insulations was best of the county squads.
