Ciaran Power, second from left, with his Waterford Comeragh team at the start of the Rás this morning in Dublin Castle.
Having spoken in recent days about having a tough couple of years in his personal life and being forced to take stock when he gained weight, former Grand Tour rider Ciaran Power has made a fantastic return to the An Post Rás.
Twice a winner of this race, and a multi stage winner; Power (40) took the county rider prize on the opening stage into Multyfarnham this afternoon.
He was not in the winning breakaway but came home just 15 seconds down on the stage winner for the county rider stage prize.
“You never know, if the fitness and form get a little bit better I might sneak in for a county prize or something,” he told stickybottle in recent days, and he has been true to his word on the opening stage.
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Taco van der Hoom (Join-S de Rijke squad) attacked the winning 15-man breakaway on the run in to the finish and held them off for a great win.
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Dylan Kennett (New Zealand) was 2nd just behind him and Rasmus Mygind (Denmark Riwal Platform) was next to round out the podium.
The remainder of the breakaway came home just three seconds behind the stage winner, with Jack Wilson (An Post-Chainreaction) and Eddie Dunbar (Team Ireland) both in the escape.
Wilson took a fantastic 5th place on the stage, with Dunbar in 9th place.
The stage winner is the first yellow jersey of the race, with a six-second cushion over Kennett.
The young Kiwi runner up today now holds the U23 classification lead and Taco van der Hoom leads the points classification.
Eoin Morton (UCD-Fitzcycles.ie) took the only categorised climb if the day, the cat 3 of Lough Crew, crested at the 54km marker, after going clear in a breakaway that also contained Bryan McCrystal (Louth ASEA-Wheelworx).
But at the finish it was Power who took the county rider prize. We’ll bring you more information shortly.
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