Conor Dunne hammered it over the dirt sections of 'road' during the Rutland-Melton International Cicle Classic (1.2) in the UK yesterday to win. The 24 year-old Irishman riding for JLT-Condor admitted he wasn't so confident of a result beforehand but felt more confident as the race developed (Photo: Larry Hickmott – VeloUK.net)
Conor Dunne is still coming to terms with the biggest win of his career yesterday when he stormed to a marvellous solo victory in the Rutland-Melton International Cicle Classic.
The 1.2-ranked race featured many of the biggest teams in the UK – including ProContinental outfit ONE Pro Cycling.
But Dunne ripped up the script and took a victory that is bound have made some teams bigger than his JLT-Condor squad sit up and take note.
A perennial man for the breakaways, Dunne celebrated his first win since his opening stage victory at the An Post Rás three years ago.
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“I don’t win many bike races so it was nice to get my hands in the air,” he told stickybottle.
“I’ve been working really hard the last couple months and there have been moments where I felt something might happen but nothing came of it so it feels good to finally pull something off.
“The Rutland is a race where you just hang in there and the selection naturally happens and I felt I had the legs to do something with 30 kilometres to go,” he explained.
“I wasn’t really confident before it but I knew we had a good team and I felt someone could get a result; we always had someone there following the moves.
“We raced it well, I felt good all day and I’ve been racing a lot recently. I was there or thereabout the whole time.”
Dunne's win is no surprise as he enjoyed a fantastic Tour of Taiwan earlier in the year.
And more recently was in attacking form at the Tour de Loir et Cher in France, going clear with Ireland's Jack Wilson (An Post-Chainreaction) on the opening stage and taking the climbers' jersey.
Dunne's fantastic riding in the Tour of Britain late last year saw him selected for the elite road race at the World Championships in the US, where he spent a large chunk of the race in the breakaway (Photo: Sean Rowe)
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As is always the case, the 180-kilometre contest is a race of attrition, and Dunne said his plan was to “hang in the front group and spare my pennies until the end”.
Indeed, when he had four teammates in a group of 40 late in the race he knew things were looking good.
“Russ Downing went away in a group of four, he’s a great sprinter and I thought he had a chance.
“But it was a headwind in towards the finish and the bunch kept attacking so he got caught on the last gravel sector.
“I was just weaving through these holes big enough to get lost in”
After that sector or dirt road, a group of eight rolled away, with Dunne and his teammate Chris Lawless there.
“We pushed on really hard and when we came inside the final two kilometres it stalled a little.
“I instinctively attacked as hard as I could and I got a gap straight away.
“I was just trying not to throw up but the gap was still there when I turned onto the finishing straight.”
He would cross the line 14 seconds ahead of runner-up Gruff Lewis (Madison Genesis) with the aforementioned Lawless rounding out the podium.
“It was epic, you work so hard in this sport and when it’s shit it’s shit and suddenly it all comes together and it’s so worth it.
“I’ve been getting some really nice messages of congratulations from people and I really appreciate every one of them.
“People were taking the piss out of me saying ‘you’ve finally won a bike race’ after so many breakaways!”
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