Darragh O'Mahony of the Irish teams lead the Junior Tour peloton on a day when three of the riders on the Irish team saved their race in closing down a dangerous breakaway (Photo: Stephen McMahon - Sportsfile)
By Brian Canty
Darragh O’Mahony said that chasing the breakaway for much of yesterday’s second stage of the Scott Bicycles Junior Tour of Ireland “had to be done”, despite having a teammate in the 12-man move.
The Irish national team rider saw the escape move clear after the first climb of the day.
And with Marc Heaney, a Carn Wheelers rider who is competing in the green of Ireland this week, infiltrating the move all seemed to be going to plan.
But when the composition of the escape was made clear to O’Mahony and teammates Simon Tuomey and Jake Gray in the peloton, the race took on a very different complexion.
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“We only had one rider up there and all the other big teams had two or three so we were in a bit of bother,” said O’Mahony, who normally rides for the O’Leary’s Stone Kanturk club.
“We went all-out together to get it back; we were riding from 15km before Castle Hill until 10km to go,” he said of the Irish team’s near 50km ride on the front.
That shift saw the men in green close down the move, save for the impressive French rider Marin Ferre (Bisontine) who now leads the climbers’ classification.
Race leader Gage Hecht of Hot Tubes leads a group of riders on the category one climb of Castle Hill (Photo: Stephen McMahon - Sportsfile)
But after the Irish team had done the lion’s share of the work to bring the race back together, the US Hot Tubes team of race leader Gage Hecht took to the front and pegged back Ferre, who had jumped clear of the breakaway.
Jack Maddux of the Hot Tubes team was in the escape and had started the day 3rdoverall, on the same time as the best placed Irish rider Tuomey.
Maddux won stage 4 of this race last year and was 4th overall, meaning the Irish team did not want to allow him gain any time.
“Maddux was up there and one other guy from Hot Tubes as well,” said O’Mahony.
“There was also AC Bisontine in the break, a couple of North California guys and Seamus Sinnott (Cycling Leinster); 12 in total.
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“So David made the call to chase and for Marc to sit up,” he said, referring to Irish team manager David McCann.
“We started riding then; with no help. All the big teams were there in the move and the ones who weren’t obviously weren’t willing to ride.
“It wasn’t ideal but it had to be done and hopefully that won’t happen again.”
Sean Yelverton of Team Munster-Tarrant Skoda, after puncturing on Castle Hill; not a development you like to see for these junior riders but Yelverton has won some great races this year so let's hope he can regroup (Photo: Stephen McMahon - Sportsfile)
When it all came back together for the sprint, one man who rued not taking the stage was young Dion McCarthy, who is riding for Cycling Munster-Tarrant Skoda this week.
“I was happy enough,” he said afterwards.
“I would've been happier to win but the climbs took it out of me.”
The first year junior was beaten to the line only by winner Nathan Pernot (NRPT-Magnet.ie) and runner-up Owen Line (Pro Vision Cycling Clothing)
“I was attacking a lot in the first 20k trying to get in the break to survive the climbs but I was stuck in the bunch for the day,” explained McCarthy.
The sprint was a fast and messy one but the Cork fast man positioned himself towards the front at a key moment.
“The hits were going early, it was really fast and I spun out coming for the line,” he said.
“I would've preferred a slog because I can sprint better when pushing a gear. But I was delighted to be first Irish man home too.
“And I’ve my teammate Conor Murphy to thank because he pulled some honest turns for me too.”
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