Lavery on his way to second in northern France yesterday
By Graham Healy
Following on from his recent win in the U23 National Championships and 3rd place in the elite race, Philip Lavery (Node 4 – Giordana Racing) has shown he has maintained his good form with a second place in the UCI 1.2 GP Pont a Marcq in Northern France yesterday.
Lavery sprinted home at the head of a chasing group of four riders, who finished 18 seconds behind Frenchman Benoit Daeninck (CC Nogent-sur-Oise).
It was Daeninck’s 12th win of the season.
A top quality field lined up for the race, including quite a few UCI Continental teams. Last year’s edition was won by Arnaud Démare, who went on to win the World U23 title later in the year.
The 184km race was originally supposed to include one of the most infamous sections of pave from Paris-Roubaix, Mons en Pevele. But the course had to be changed due to heavy showers. Instead, the riders tackled 12 laps of a 15.6 km circuit.
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A break of 18 riders went clear after 25 kilometres, and Lavery missed this selection. However, he later bridged across with his teammate Mike Northey.
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Then four riders went clear, and Lavery closed a 30 second gap on his own to join the winning break.
With 30 kilometres remaining, Daeninck and Lavery attacked from this group, before the Frenchman went clear on his own in the last 10 kilometres. Lavery was then caught by the three chasing riders, and despite having put in a lot of work earlier on, he still managed to win the sprint for second by a bike length from Loïc Desriac of Cyrille Guimard’s Roubaix Lille Metropole team.
Lavery’s UCI points from the race will push Ireland up the U23 UCI rankings, which has been an issue of concern.
As highlighted recently on Stickybottle, Ireland had slipped from 18th to 26th in the rankings: the last slot under which nations can qualify for the U23 Worlds.
Lavery's points from yesterday should help to ensure that Ireland will have riders at the U23 World Championships.
Results
1. DAENINCK Benoït (FRA – C.C. Nogent sur Oise) 04:24’09 (41,794 km/h)
2. LAVERY Philip (IRL – Node 4 – Giordana Racing) +18″
3. DESRIAC Loïc (FRA – Roubaix Lille Metropole) +18″
4. VANHAECKE Thomas (BEL – Geox Fuji Test Team) +18″
5. DAVID Tom (NZL – T.Palm – Pôle Continental Wallon) +18″
6. DRANCOURT Pierre (FRA – Roubaix Lille Metropole) +30″
7. DERNIES Tom (BEL – Wallonie Bruxelles – Credit Agricole) +38″
8. COENEN Johan (BEL – Team Differdange – Magic-sportfoot.de) +38″
9. DRON Boris (BEL – Wallonie Bruxelles – Credit Agricole) +38″
10. VERHELST Louis (BEL – EFC – Omega Pharma – Quick Step) +1’54″
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