Dillon Corkery, leading, of Pinic PostNL is going very well at Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and hoping for a result after a promising sprint (Photo: Alessandro Perrone-SCA-Cor Vos)
Riding just his second World Tour stage race in his neo pro season, Dillon Corkery (Picnic PostNL) displayed no shortage of grunt, coupled with plenty of strength, to hold position at the front of the bunch on yesterday's stage 4 at Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (2.UWT), formerly Critérium du Dauphiné.
"Inside the last 2km, I got on the wheel of (Dorian) Godon and I followed him all the way to the line," Corkery told stickybottle. "I got a good run at the last corner. But I would've liked to have been closer to Wout (van Aert) and (Bryan) Coquard."
In the end, the 10-man breakaway that looked for the last 50km like it would be caught somehow survived by four seconds, with Quinn Simmons (Lidl Trek) winning it from a sprint.
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That meant the peloton was sprinting for 11th, with Corkery 8th in the bunch and taking 18th on the day. He wanted to be much higher up the result. But at this level, and after over 160km and more than 2,000m of elevation gain, it was a strong performance by Corkery.
It underlined his clear potential for the sprints, especially after slightly harder days not tailor-made for the pure sprinters.
"It's been a tough race so far, there's been no easy days," Corkery added four stages into the eight-stage race. “A breakaway has won every day so far and that's just made for hard racing."
Yesterday, the speed in the final was notable as both breakaway and bunch were blown towards the finish in Montrond-les-Bains, central France; the high speed limiting the bunch's capacity to catch those ahead.
This time last year, Corkery was riding for Conti team St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93. But now he's kicking himself he wasn't closer to Wout van Aert in the srpint at a World Tour stage race (Photo: Nathalie Teyssier)
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"I felt really good today probably my best day so far, not that I would have made it over the climbs on the other two days, but today was definitely the better days so far with the leg.”
He said his team mate Gijs Leemreize just barely missed getting across to the winning breakaway as it went.
Fighting to the finish
"We knew then it was 50-50 that it would stay away. Because of the wind and the descent into the finish, we knew that it was a cross-tailwind, so you just had to be super alert on their descent before the last 30k came.
"It was a rocket fast finish, the kind of finish where, if a breakaway has a minute or two, it's very hard to get them back. I think the average for the last hour was something like 52k.
"I'm sure if there was a headwind we would have caught them. But it is what it is, and in the final run-in I had some help from Henri (François Renard-Haquin), James (Knox) and Alexy (Faure Prost) and Gijs was there as well.
"When I look back at the sprint, I did quite a good sprint to come around the guys that I did come around. But tomorrow is another day and I'll definitely have a crack off of tomorrow's stage.
“It's really similar to today, I just have to suffer for the first two hours and then I have a 100k run into the finish, to try and recover.
"So I'll just try to keep my cards close to my chest, try and suffer a bit and use positioning to my advantage. Hopefully I can try and get a good run at the finish and be more at the forefront. I think I have the help here with me to do that, so I’d really like a top 10 tomorrow.
“I'm starting to find a decent level again after I was out with a disc problem, in my back, the last couple of months. And trying to find the level again has been tough - when you're racing and not getting a whole pile of time for training.
“But I got a decent block in the last couple of weeks. I think I showed today in the gallop I can do it, so if it does come down to a sprint, I’d back myself for a good result.”
