Better day for the Irish at Tour of Britain

Posted on: September 15th, 2011 by Editor

Tour of Britain

Andrew Fenn

An Post’s Andrew Fenn

Stage 5: Exeter – Exmouth 112miles

After some tough days of racing that saw the Irish trio in the Tour of Britain lose time, today was kinder to them with Mark Cassidy, Ronan McLaughlin (both An Post-Sean Kelly) and Matt Brammeier (HTC-Highroad) all finishing in the main peloton.

Andrew Fenn was again best of the An Post-Sean Kelly team, coming home in an impressive fifth place in the bunch sprint into Exmouth.

Brammeier had spent the closing 20 kilometres working for his team sprinters to peg back the day’s breakaway, and when the stage was settled in a sprint the HTC-Highroad gallopers did not disappoint.

Mark Renshaw took victory with Mark Cavendish in second place, for once playing bridesmaid to his Australian team mate. Lars Boom (Rabobank) was 17^th today and retains the leader’s jersey.

Fenn was the best U23 on the stage, pushing Renshaw and Cavendish close for the win and finishing just one place behind GC favourite Geraint Thomas (Sky). Fenn’s team mate Mark McNally, who is also an U23 rider and was in the thick of the early attacks today, finished in 18^th place.

Ronan McLaughlin was 27^th on the same time as the winner, with Mark Cassidy also in the peloton, in 72^nd place.

Brammeier swung off the front of the bunch after doing his final turns in the fast finale and came home a little off the back, being clocked on a time 17 seconds slower than the peloton.

The race reached Exmouth almost completely intact despite the presence of three climbs – two second cats and one first cat – on today’s route.

While those ascents were steep in places, the last of them was crested at the 37 mile mark, with 72 miles remaining to the finish. This meant there was never going to be the kind of flat out racing that would have frustrated the efforts of those dropped on the hills to get back on.

Pieter Ghyllebert (An Post-Sean Kelly) only managed to land one point in the sprints competition today. However, his main rivals for that jersey also failed to score many points meaning the Belgium retains his commanding lead in that classification.

While HTC-Highroad scored a stage 1-2, it wasn’t all plain sailing for them. Their other sprinter Alex Rasmussen has apparently been let go by the time for missing some out of competition dope tests and he did not start today’s stage.

Tomorrow is another lumpy stage, with 91 miles into Wells taking in three climbs. The second of the day’s two first category ascents is just 16 miles from the finish and may well prove decisive in the race for the yellow jersey.

Stage 5: Result

Postion	Rider	Team	Time
1	Mark Renshaw	HTC Highroad	4h 17′ 38”
2	Mark Cavendish	HTC Highroad	st
3	Robert Förster	UnitedHealthcare	st
4	Geraint Thomas	Sky ProCycling	st
5	Andrew Fenn	An Post – Sean Kelly	st
6	Mathew Hayman	Sky ProCycling	st
7	Zak Dempster	Rapha Condor – Sharp	st
8	Stijn Neirynck	Topsport Vlaanderen	st
9	Daniel Schorn	Team NetApp	st
10	Giacomo Nizzolo	Leopard Trek	st
11	Boy Van Poppel	UnitedHealthcare	st
12	Jonathan McEvoy	Motorpoint	st
13	Jelle Wallays	Topsport Vlaanderen	st
14	Paul Voss	Endura Racing	st
15	Julian Dean	Team Garmin – Cervelo	st
16	Jack Bauer	Endura Racing	st
17	Lars Boom	Rabobank	st
18	Mark McNally	An Post – Sean Kelly	st
19	Tom Murray	Sigma Sport-Specialized	st
20	Daniel Lloyd	Team Garmin – Cervelo	st

27	Ronan McLaughlin	An Post – Sean Kelly	4h 17′ 38”
56	Gediminas Bagdonas	An Post – Sean Kelly	st
72	Mark Cassidy	An Post – Sean Kelly	st
76	Matt Brammeier	HTC Highroad	0 17″
77	Pieter Ghyllebert	An Post – Sean Kelly	st

General Classification

Postion	Rider	Team	Time
1	Lars Boom	Rabobank	16h 54′ 29”
2	Geraint Thomas	Sky ProCycling	at 0′ 12”
3	Boy Van Poppel	UnitedHealthcare	at 0′ 14”
4	Daniel Lloyd	Team Garmin – Cervelo	at 0′ 16”
5	Linus Gerdemann	Leopard Trek	at 0′ 17”
6	Ian Bibby	Motorpoint	at 0′ 19”
7	Jelle Wallays	Topsport Vlaanderen	st
8	Stephen Cummings	Sky ProCycling	st
9	Jan-Bert Lindeman	Vacansoleil – DCM	st
10	Bram Tankink	Rabobank	st
11	Jan Barta	Team NetApp	st
12	Leopold Koenig	Team NetApp	st
13	Jonathan Tiernan Locke	Rapha Condor – Sharp	st
14	Mark Cavendish	HTC Highroad	at 0′ 34”
15	Andrew Fenn	An Post – Sean Kelly	st
16	Iker Camano	Endura Racing	at 0′ 37”
17	Rory Sutherland	UnitedHealthcare	st
18	Joost Posthuma	Leopard Trek	at 0′ 39”
19	Dominic Klemme	Leopard Trek	st
20	Michael Rogers	Sky ProCycling	at 0′ 43”

44	Mark McNally	An Post – Sean Kelly	at 8′ 35”
52	Gediminas Bagdonas	An Post – Sean Kelly	st
63	Ronan McLaughlin	An Post – Sean Kelly	at 12′ 51”
64	Pieter Ghyllebert	An Post – Sean Kelly	at 12′ 55”
82	Matt Brammeier	HTC Highroad	at 15′ 20”
84	Mark Cassidy	An Post – Sean Kelly	at 16′ 27”