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Last Updated: 2 Apr 2018 - 8:45:17 PM |
MAY SCOOPS WIN IN TIPPERARY WHILE WETTERHALL GRABS YELLOW
By Shane Stokes
26 May 2010,
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German rider Maximillan May (Germany Thuringer Energie) was quickest out of a 20 man breakaway group which caused chaos on today’s fourth stage of the FBD Insurance Rás, upending the general classification after the first six in the overall standings missed out.
May outsprinted Joseph Lewis (Australia Drapac Porsche), Pieter Ghyllebert (Belgium An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly) and 17 others to the line in Tipperary, roaring loudly as he threw his arms in the air.
2008 FBD Insurance Rás winner Stephen Gallagher (Britain Sigmasport Specialized) was best Irishman in ninth, while Fraser Duncan (Dublin Eurocycles) was top county rider in 12th. Ghyllebert’s An Post team-mate Connor McConvey and Ryan Sherlock (Dublin Eurocycles) also made the split, which started approximately halfway through the 169 kilometre stage.
Swedish rider Alexander Wetterhall (Sweden Team Sprocket Pro) was best-placed overall in the break. He had trailed race leader Dan Craven (Rapha Condor Sharp) by sixteen seconds overnight, but with Craven and most of the other riders in the top six finishing two minutes and 38 seconds behind, the yellow jersey passed onto his shoulders.
“I am an aggressive rider, I like to ride on the front. So this is a good race for me,” he said after the stage. “I can be aggressive and it counts as well [doing it in a race like the FBD Rás]. I knew I could have the yellow jersey after today so I was riding really hard in the last 50 kilometres just to keep it. It was a great success for me and the team today, so that was good.”
The 24 year old rode the Tour of Ireland two years ago. His stage racing experience also includes the Tour de l’Ain and, this season, the Tour of Brittany. He said that after focussing on mountain bike riding for eleven years, he now planned to chase success on the road.
“I am a beginner at road racing, and I want to get really good at it,” he explained, before describing his tactic inside the last ten minutes of racing.
“I was riding hard and there was single file all the way from four kilometres to go. I knew I had to do it as otherwise there would be attacks. I didn’t want any of those, so I was riding hard until the finish line.”
That suited May just fine. A fast pace helped keep things together and dissuaded attacks. He described himself afterwards as a rider who could win a sprint from a small group, and he used that speed to good effect, hitting the line ahead of the rest.
“The final kilometres were very hard. Two teams rode in the front, but I looked to the others, the good sprinters, and knew that I had to be in second or third place in the last corner,” he said. “I saw the sign for 150 metres to go and I gave it everything I had.”
Bogaerts happy, Craven vows to fight on:
Kurt Bogaerts was very satisfied at the finish yesterday as the An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly team rider David O’Loughlin won the stage and moved up to ninth overall. The Mayo rider slipped back to 20th this evening, but McConvey’s strong ride saw him jump up to a fine fifth. He is one minute and 46 seconds behind, and very much still in the hunt for stages and the overall classification.
“For sure I think he can be in contention,” he said, when asked if McConvey would thrive in the hiller final four stages. “I think from this point onwards it is going to suit Conor better and better. He was the strongest of the team in the hills of the Tour of Besseges. Okay, he lacks race tactics, but he is clever enough and he learns every day. He is definitely a guy who I think has a chance.”
McConvey was actually one of those responsible for the move, as he attacked approximately 72 kilometres into the stage. He went clear with Wetterhall and Rob Partridge (Wales) and this sparked off the later chase by seventeen others which formed the basis for the bigger break. He finished second to Wetterhall on the category three climb of Killanena, and then edged out the Swede to the top of the next hill, that of Knockanena.
Tomorrow’s stage ends at the top of Seskin Hill, so he has a chance to show what he can do there. One rider who also hopes to be in the mix is the deposed race leader Craven. He said that the tactics today were what caught him out, with the constant attacks in the first half of the stage making it all but impossible to keep things under control
“I spoke to some foreign riders when we were in the bunch and they all agreed that this is the most insane race that we have ever been in,” he said. “This was a typical Rás day - everyone attacks at the first kilometre and they don’t stop attacking until the end. It was absolutely mad by the time we hit the climb, you could everyone was really suffering.
“Some guys rolled off the front and all the strong guys on GC except Wetterhall were left there, looking at each other. No one reacted until it was too late. We tried to chase them, An Post was really dedicated. The other teams basically gave up on it, so it is a big loss to them.”
The Namibian ended the day eighth in the overall standings. However he’s just two minutes 22 seconds back and in a race as chaotic and unpredictable as the FBD Rás, that is nothing. He knows that they are not out of the game yet.
“At the moment we’ve lost a lot of time but myself or someone else from the team can take it back on another day, with a similar break. We have had three very hard days of defending the yellow jersey and it’s now up to Wetterhall. He had a great ride today, but it’s up to them to do the defending and we can do some attacking. That’s more our style. The race isn’t over yet – there’s still four days to go.”
If he’s feeling good, tomorrow’s summit finish at Seskin Hill certainly gives him and the other contenders a platform to try something. However the new yellow jersey wearer has the build of a climber and said that he could do well.
“I hope my legs are good. If they are, I will go fast on the hills,” he vowed.
How it unfolded:
A total of 146 riders started today’s stage in Oughterard, with Tom Scully (New Zealand) the only one not to sign on. He had a bad fall in the finishing straight yesterday, breaking his leg.
The first attackers were Joseph Lewis (Australia Drapac Porsche) and Pieter Ghyllebert (Belgium An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly), who went clear shortly after the start and opened up a lead of 20 seconds.
Approximately 20 kilometres into the stage, Thomas Martin (Dublin Eurocycles) and Philip Lavery (Dublin Murphy & Gunn/Newlyn) surged ahead and gained 22 seconds on the peloton. Martin weakened after a couple of kilometres and went back, while Lavery persisted alone.
Several minutes later, he realised it was futile to push on with the peloton chasing behind, and eased up. However he was then joined by three others - Neil Delahaye (Ireland Subway National Team), Marc Ryan (New Zealand) and yesterday’s winner David O'Loughlin (Belgium An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly), and these pushed on again.
Tour de Langkawi stage winner Stuart Shaw (Australia Drapac Porsche) and Tobyn Horton (Sweden - Team Sprocket Pro) then got across, making it a leading group of six.
They were joined soon afterwards by Wouter Sybrandy (Britain Sigmasport Specialised), Mark Cassidy (Belgium An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly), John Anderson (Sweden - Team Sprocket Pro) and Michael O'Reilly (Limerick BDO Get Back), but the bunch deemed the ten-man move to be too dangerous and closed it down.
An hour into the stage, 2008 FBD Rás winner Stephen Gallagher (Britain Sigmasport Specialized) and David Pell (Drapac Porsche) accelerated clear. Pell went back to the bunch soon afterwards, but Gallagher continued on and was joined by Joseph Lewis (Australia Drapac Porsche), Eugene Moriarty (Meath Engraveit.ie/Jade.ie), Michael Singer (Austria Arbö KTM-Gebrüder Weis), Adam Armstrong (Ireland Subway National Team), Stephen Surdival (Mayo Castlebar Western Edge ), Jakob Steigmiller (Germany Thuringer Energie) and Jon Tiernan-Locke (Britain Rapha Condor Sharp).
A flood of other riders also made the junction, increasing the size of the lead bunch to over 30. The yellow jersey Dan Craven (Britain Rapha Condor Sharp) was also there, as were most of the main contenders.
Things came back together soon afterwards, but three riders saw opportunity and scurried clear just before the first KOM climb of the day, that of Killanena (km 77.6). Connor McConvey (Belgium An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly), Alexander Wetterhall (Sweden - Team Sprocket Pro) and Rob Partridge (Wales) opened up a gap of 15 seconds on the climb, with Wetterhall leading McConvey and Partridge across the summit. Behind, Frazer Duncan (Dublin Eurocycles) grabbed fourth.
Wetterhall had started the day eighth overall, just 18 seconds off the race leader Craven, and consolidated his position as race leader on the road when the gap opened further. McConvey led the Swedish rider and Partridge over the next climb, that of Knockanena (km 85), while Duncan grabbed fourth again.
Time checks after the summit put a group of sixteen chasers as being 18 seconds behind, with the peloton a further 45 seconds back.
Approaching Scariff, 92 kilometres into the stage, the 16 chasers joined up to make it a leading group of 20. The riders who bridged across were Wouter Sybrandy (Britain Sigmasport Specialised), Josef Kugler (Austria Arbö KTM-Gebrüder Weis), Stuart Shaw (Australia Drapac Porsche), Pieter Ghyllebert (Belgium An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly), Stephen Gallagher (Britain Sigmasport Specialised), Joseph Lewis (Australia Drapac Porsche), Maximillan May (Germany Thuringer Energie), Alessio Signego (Japan - Nippo), John Anderson (Sweden - Team Sprocket Pro), Matt Howe (USA Inside-Out Sports), Ben Greenwood (Britain Rapha Condor Sharp), Jon Tiernan-Locke (Britain Rapha Condor Sharp), Ian Bibby (Motorpoint Marshalls Pasta), James Sampson (Motorpoint Marshalls Pasta), Peter Williams (Motorpoint Marshalls Pasta) and Ryan Sherlock (Dublin Eurocycles).
Neil Delahaye (Ireland Subway National Team), Stephen Barrett (Team Planet X), Sean Lacey (Limerick BDO Get Back), Stephen O'Sullivan (Meath Engraveit.ie/Jade.ie) and Paul Griffin (Tipperary Dan Morrissey) were chasing behind, running over a minute behind this lead group and trying hard to bridge.
The peloton, which included the top six riders in the overall standings plus yesterday’s stage winner and mountains leader David O’Loughlin (An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly), was almost two minutes down.
Just before the 100 kilometre point, Philip Lavery attacked from the bunch and successfully bridged across to the five in front of him. The group hammered along and, 28 kilometres later, had succeeded in reducing the gap to 42 seconds. At the same time, a 20 man group which included Craven and many other contenders finally shook off the anchor of the peloton and started to chase. Driven along by the Britain Rapha Condor and Belgium An Post M. Donnelly Grant Thornton Sean Kelly teams, it set about reducing a deficit which had stretched to over seven minutes as its maximum.
With 28 kilometres remaining, the six man group of Irish riders was over a minute back, and clearly unable to close the gap. Lavery, Lacey and Griffin pushed forward but the others came back to them, then the group once again began to lose momentum.
Behind, the larger chase bunch was travelling faster than the leaders, and continued to make inroads. It mopped up the six man group and, two minutes and 38 seconds after May scooped the stage victory, it crossed the line. Craven ended the day two minutes 22 seconds behind the new race leader Wetterhall, yet is close enough to still be in the picture. He vowed to attack in the days ahead; he may have lost the battle, but he could yet win the war.
Ditto for the other riders who had been in the top ten; as any Rás observer will tell you, the race is hugely changeable and any strong rider who is within a few minutes of yellow could yet end up packing it into their suitcase on Sunday evening.
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FBD Insurance Rás, Ireland (2.2, May 23 – 30)
Stage 4, Oughterard – Tipperary:
1, Maximillan May (Germany Thuringer Energie) 169 kilometres in 3 hours 49 mins 16 secs
2, Joseph Lewis (Australia Drapac Porsche)
3, Pieter Ghyllebert (Belgium An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly)
4, Ian Bibby (Motorpoint Marshalls Pasta)
5, Alessio Signego (Japan - Nippo)
6, Wouter Sybrandy (Britain Sigmasport Specialized)
7, Peter Williams (Motorpoint Marshalls Pasta)
8, Matt Howe (USA Inside-Out Sports)
9, Stephen Gallagher (Britain Sigmasport Specialized)
10, Josef Kugler (Austria Arbö KTM-Gebrüder Weis)
11, Alexander Wetterhall (Sweden - Team Sprocket Pro)
12, Frazer Duncan (Dublin Eurocycles)
13, Rob Partridge (Wales)
14, Connor McConvey (Belgium An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly)
15, Ryan Sherlock (Dublin Eurocycles) all same time
King of the Hills primes:
Category 3 climb at Killanena (km 77.6):
1, Alexander Wetterhall (Sweden - Team Sprocket Pro) 5pts
2, Connor McConvey (Belgium An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly) 4
3, Rob Partridge (Wales) 3
4, Frazer Duncan (Dublin Eurocycles) 2
Category 3 KOM at Knockanena (km 85):
1, Connor McConvey (Belgium An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly) 5pt
2, Alexander Wetterhall (Sweden - Team Sprocket Pro) 4
3, Rob Partridge (Wales) 3
4, Frazer Duncan (Dublin Eurocycles) 2
County rider:
1, Frazer Duncan (Dublin Eurocycles) 3 hours 49 mins 16 secs
2, Ryan Sherlock (Dublin Eurocycles) same time
3, Philip Lavery (Dublin Murphy & Gunn/Newlyn) at 2 mins 38 secs
International team:
1, Motorpoint Marshalls Pasta, 11 hours 27 mins 48 secs
2, Britain Sigmasport Specialized, 11 hours 30 mins 26 secs
3, Belgium An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly, same time
County team:
1, Dublin Eurocycles, 11 hours 30 mins 26 secs
2, Limerick BDO Get Back, 11 hours 35 mins 42 secs
3, Tipperary Dan Morrissey, same time
General Classification after four stages:
1, Alexander Wetterhall (Sweden - Team Sprocket Pro) 11 hours 7 mins 51 secs
2, Joseph Lewis (Australia Drapac Porsche) at 1 min 46 secs
3, Josef Kugler (Austria Arbö KTM-Gebrüder Weis)
4, John Anderson (Sweden - Team Sprocket Pro)
5, Connor McConvey (Belgium An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly)
6, Rob Partridge (Wales)
7, Stuart Shaw (Australia Drapac Porsche) all same time
8, Dan Craven (Britain Rapha Condor Sharp) at 2 mins 22 secs
9, Mark McNally (Belgium An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly) at 2 mins 29 secs
10, Kit Gilham (Britain Sigmasport Specialized) at 2 mins 33 secs
11, David Pell (Australia Drapac Porsche) at 2 mins 34 secs
12, Andrew Roche (Motorpoint Marshalls Pasta) at 2 mins 38 secs
13, Peter Williams (Motorpoint Marshalls Pasta) at 2 mins 42 secs
14, Maximillan May (Germany Thuringer Energie) at 3 mins 37 secs
15, Pieter Ghyllebert (Belgium An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly) same time
Points:
1, Dan Craven (Britain Rapha Condor Sharp) 23 pts
2, Wouter Sybrandy (Britain Sigmasport Specialized) 22
3, Joseph Lewis (Australia Drapac Porsche) 20
4, Peter Williams (Motorpoint Marshalls Pasta) 19
5, Pieter Ghyllebert (Belgium An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly) 18
King of the mountains:
1, David O'Loughlin (Belgium An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly) 20 pts
2, Simon Richardson (Britain Sigmasport Specialized) 16
3, Dan Craven (Britain Rapha Condor Sharp) 15
4, Alexander Wetterhall (Sweden - Team Sprocket Pro) 15
5, David Pell (Australia Drapac Porsche) 13
Under 23:
1, Joseph Lewis (Australia Drapac Porsche) 11 hours 9 mins 37 secs
2, Connor McConvey (Belgium An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly) same time
3, Mark McNally (Belgium An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly) at 43 secs
4, Maximillan May (Germany Thuringer Energie) at 1 min 51 secs
5, John Degenkolb (Germany Thuringer Energie) at 2 mins 38 secs
Country rider:
1, Philip Lavery (Dublin Murphy & Gunn/Newlyn) 11 hours 13 mins 11 secs
2, Ryan Sherlock (Dublin Eurocycles) at 35 secs
3, John Dempsey (Tipperary Dan Morrissey) at 55 secs
4, Paul Griffin (Tipperary Dan Morrissey)
5, Conor Murphy (Dublin Eurocycles) both same time
International teams:
1, Belgium An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly, 33 hours 29 mins 26 secs
2, Australia Drapac Porsche, at 17 secs
3, Motorpoint Marshalls Pasta, at 26 secs
4, Sweden Team Sprocket, at 57 secs
5, Britain Rapha Condror Sharp, at 1 min 13 secs
County team:
1, Dublin Eurocycles, 33 hours 41 mins 34 secs
2, Tipperary Dan Morrissey, at 44 secs
3, Limerick BDO Get Back, at 14 mins 12 secs
4, Meath Engraveit.ie/Jade.ie, at 33 mins 10 secs
5, Mayo Castlebar Western Edge, at 43 mins 1 sec
Listen to audio interviews from the race here: http://blog.fitzcycles.ie/blog/fbd-r%C3%A1s-2010-interviews-after-stage-4
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