Report & Photos: Danish 20-year-old takes stage 4, Lang leads going into the highlands

Mark Pedersen, from Denmark, beats Polish rider Marcin Bialoblocki on stage four of the An Post Ras (Photo: Paul Mohan – Sportsfile)

By Gerard Cromwell
In Bundoran

The tension was palpable in Bundoran this afternoon for the end of stage four of the An Post Ras, as the large crowd assembled waited with baited breath to see if local man Ronan McLaughlin (An Post-Sean Kelly) could hold off a fast finishing peloton in the final 5km of the 135km stage.

McLaughlin had put in one of the epic rides of recent years when he went clear on his own after 66km of racing and built up a maximum lead of over four minutes on the peloton.

In full time trial mode and complete with skinsuit, overshoes and closed vent helmet, the 24-year-old scorched along the road towards Sligo and then Bundoran, tipping 75kph on sections, as various chasers tried to bridge the gap unsuccessfully in the early part of his escape.

The wind that had helped him open his advantage however, soon turned against him in the final 25km and the wide open roads provided no shelter for the man from Muff as the sprinters began to assemble at the front of the bunch behind.

As the seconds were knocked off his lead with every rise in the road in the final 10km, the crowd at the finish willed him towards the line and his dream of a Ras stage win, although not into the town of Buncrana where many had predicted.

“Everybody knew I was just going to be mad for Buncrana so I couldn’t see myself getting much leeway tomorrow. I had to take the chance today but it just didn’t work out.”

McLaughlin dropped out of overall contention when he crashed and then broke a wheel, losing almost four minutes on stage three.

“I felt really good and knew I was in really good form yesterday and kind of convinced myself that no matter what moved today I’d be on it. I got into maybe 10 or 12 moves in the first 50km or 60km and couldn’t get away. At the first time check I had 40 seconds to two guys chasing and nearly two minutes to the bunch so I thought ‘I have to give it everything here’.”

McLaughlin however was cruelly caught with just 100m to go and Danish rider Mark Pedersen led the first nine riders in the bunch past him on the line.

“It was very close,” said the 20-year-old from Copenhagen afterwards.

“There were a lot of crosswinds in the final kilometres and the pace was very high. I’m best in the wind and the flat stages so today was maybe my last chance to win a stage because we go to the mountains tomorrow. In the sprint, I was just the strongest.”

As those who had witnessed his epic ride tried to console him, a tearful McLaughlin almost apologised for not winning.

“I kept convincing myself to sprint once more, attack once more, but with 200m to go I couldn’t even get out of the saddle. I had nothing left.”

Overnight leader Pirmin Lang retained his yellow jersey ahead of British professionals Richard Handley (Rapha Condor) and James Moss of Node4 Giordana, both of whom are on the same time as Lang going into stage five.

Handley also leads the U23 classification, although he may soon be under pressure from Irish duo Philip Lavery and Aaron Buggle, the latter of whom took 12th on the stage for best county rider.

“The group split coming in the road and I finished with the white jersey so, in that category, it’s still very tight,” said a happy Buggle.

“I didn’t think it was going to be so flat out but straight away I knew that you could get caught out and tried to stay up there. Luckily I did because the race blew to pieces fairly quickly after the start. Tomorrow we will see who the strong men are.”

Overall, Conor McConvey of An Post is highest placed Irishman in fifth but lost six seconds yesterday while double Ras winner David McCann (RTS Racing) moved up to 11th place today at 26 seconds.

For earlier stage report click here