Sam Bennett (far right) takes the bunch sprint for third in Cootehill (Photo: J Rafferty)
A six-man breakaway dominated the proceedings on stage seven of the An Post Rás, with David McCann then catching it on his own in the closing stages as he battled hard to take the race lead on the penultimate day.
However, the Swiss Atlas Jakroo team of race leader Nicolas Baldo were composed and simply closed it all down with 10kms remaining to make sure that jersey stayed on their man’s shoulders.
With a big group in tact hurtling towards the finish in Cootehill, three riders clipped off the front of the flying peloton in what would prove to be the winning escape as there were a number of crashes in the bunch.
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That trio was made up of Lasse Hansen of the Danish Blue Water team, Kai Exner of the German Bike Aid Cycling Team and Ireland’s Chris Reilly, the Bohermeen mad riding on the Meath Stamullen-M Donnelly team.
It was a great effort by Reilly to get off the front with the two foreign riders after such a hard week and with 10kms remaining in the stage.
They pulled out a gap of ten seconds immediately, then creeping up to 15. But under that pressure Reilly was unable to hold on and lost his place up front, being reabsorbed by the charging peloton just behind. At the 3km to go mark the two leaders had 25 seconds on the bunch.
Hansen was absolutely determined to make the most of his chance, attacking Exner with 1km to go and pulling out just a few seconds on him. Just when it looked like both would be caught, Hansen was able to keep the hammer down and flew into a sunbaked Cootehill to take a fantastic win.
Exner hung on for second place, crossing the line just seven seconds after the winner. Sam Bennett took the bunch sprint for third just five seconds later, with his An Post-Sean Kelly team mate Gediminas Bagdonas in fourth.
Peter Hawkins (IG Sigma Sport) was next best of the Irish, in 9th place on the same time as Bennett.
The stage had been animated by a breakaway of six riders, five of whom were Irish.
That escape included: Aaron Buggle (Dan Morrissey-Speedy Spokes), Philip Lavery (NODE4-Giordana) Ronan McLaughlin (An Post-Sean Kelly), Martyn Irvine (RTS Racing), Simon Richardson (IG Sigma) and Mark Pedersen (Blue Water).
These went clear with just over 25kms covered of the 161km stage from Donegal Town to Cootehill. In breezy conditions and battling into a tough headwind, the breakaway had built a lead of just under two minutes by the time they reached the first KOH prime; the Bellavalley cat 2 climb at the 92km point.
Irvine, who won the penultimate stage on last year’s race, was struggling at that point due to lack or road miles in recent months and he lost contact on the climb, leaving just five up front.
With 40km remaining in the stage and with the breakaway’s lead having come down a little, Lavery decided he was going to attack and took off on his own.
He got a gap of around 20 seconds on the chasers and that grew until the hammer went on among the breakaway again to get him back. This effort saw Pedersen get dropped, leaving Buggle, McLaughlin and Richardson chasing the lone Lavery.
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With Lavery 2:30 ahead of the bunch and 20 seconds ahead of the chasing trio at the 27km to go point, David McCann (RTS Racing) attacked the bunch on his own. He quickly blasted away, picking up Pedersen; with the duo then riding hard to catch all four riders up the road, making the breakaway a group of six again.
Lavery had fought well but into a headwind he was not making any gains and ultimately sat up.
With McCann now in the breakaway, the move was doomed. He had started the day 11th on GC, just 39 seconds down and unlike the six who had escaped earlier, he was a major GC danger man.
With 20km to go, the escape had 1:15 before McCann got an untimely mechanical, but quickly regained the group. Lavery and McLaughlin then tried to get clear of the four men they were with at the 18km to go mark. At that point the main field was just one minute back.
As the breakaway men crested the final climb of Kavanagh’s Hill with exactly 17km to go, they had 23 seconds on the four chasers, but the six then quickly regrouped.
Behind in the peloton the Atlas Jakroo of yellow jersey Baldo kept the cool and simply closed it all down, catching the leaders very quickly and at the 10km to go mark things were set up for a bunch gallop.
However, Reilly, Hansen and Exner made their move just after the 10km mark for what would prove to be the race winning move.
We’ll have more later for you.
Stage 7
1) Lasse Norman Hansen( Blue Water Cycling) 4:13:21
2) Kai Exner (Bike Aid Cycling Team) @ 7secs
3) Sam Bennett (An Post Sean Kelly) @ 12 secs
4) Gediminas Bagdonas (An Post Sean Kelly)
5) Roy Eefting (Koga Cycling)
6) Marcin Bialoblocki (Node4 Giordana)
7) Rostislav Krotky (AC Sparta Praha)
8 Richard Lang (Rapha Condor Sharp)
9) Peter Hawkins (Team IG - Sigma Sport)
10) Pirmin Lang (Atlas Jakroo)
Overall
1) Nicholas Baldo (Atlas Jakroo)
2) Thomas Rostollan (AVC Aix En Provence)
3) Martin Hunal (AC Sparta Praha)
4) Pirmin Lang (Atlas Jakroo)
5) Richard Handley (Rapha Condor Sharp)
6) Marcin Bialoblocki (Node4 Giordana)
7) Connor McConvey (An Post Sean Kelly)
8 Jonathan Fumeaux (Atlas Jakroo)
9) Gediminas Bagdonas (An Post Sean Kelly)
10) Remi Sarreboubee (AVC Aix En Provence)1
Hansen takes a great stage win (Photo: J Rafferty)
Exner was happy with second (Photo: J Rafferty)
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