Danny Bruton – seen here earlier in the season leading the group – has won the opening stage of the A2-A3 race in the Charleville Two Day (Photo: www.blackumbrella.com )
Danny Bruton has won the opening stage of the Charleville Park Hotel Two-Day this afternoon, Saturday.
The Nicolas Roche Performance Team-Standard Life rider was quickest to the line at the end of the 80-kilometre race, played out in wet and miserable conditions in north Cork.
It was a great result for Bruton who was selected on the Irish team for the European Road Race Championships this year, but before that saw a large chunk of his season compromised after he crashed and broke a collar bone in the weeks before the Junior Tour of Ireland.
He got the verdict today from a bunch gallop, with Alan Brosnan (Dublin Wheelers) second and Sean Hahessy rounding out the podium; the latter riding for the O’Leary’s Stone Kanturk team for the weekend, though usually rides with Iverk Produce Carrick Wheelers.
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Hahessy had been one of the day’s central figures, after spending almost half the stage away on his own, though never getting more than 40 seconds.
The Waterford youngster, who took silver in the National Junior Time Trial Championships last month blasted clear of the peloton after just five kilometres of racing today. Very quickly, his gap swelled to 15seconds and by Newtownshandrum that was up to 20 seconds as the bunch behind him stalled.
A few more little groups tried merging but they were given no slack whatsoever and Hahessy maintained his small gap in atrocious conditions.
Ever-present at the front of the peloton were the blue and yellow of the Nicolas Roche team and with the defending champion Dylan Foley marshaling matters – or keeping a tight rein on Eddie Dunbar, rather – the bunch seemed content that Hahessy was out front alone.
Though he ploughed on alone, some company would have helped his cause greatly. He nearly had his wish by the 25km mark when teammate Laurent Dumoulin, Blarney’s Colm Sheahan, Liam Corcoran (NRPT) and the aggressive David Winship (Newcastle West BC) tried to get up to him.
That quartet got to within 25 seconds of Hahessy, but it was reeled in.
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By Newmarket, with the rain still pouring down, it was all back together and Hahessy’s sojourn off the front had amounted to nought. The next dangerous move came from another O’Leary’s Stone Kanturk man Dylan O’Brien, bronze medalist from the National Junior Road Race Championships this year.
O’Brien jumped away and pulled out a gap very quickly, but on such long and straight drags it proved an impossible task to go clear alone as the weight of the peloton, albeit a fragmented one at this stage, reeled him in.
As expected, Kanturk's ace card Dunbar had a few kicks, but with Foley clung to his wheel the diminutive first year junior wasn’t going anywhere.
The race split up very badly on the stretch for home with as many as six groups on the road at one stage; a combination of some relentless attacking off the front as well as some heavy roads and deteriorating conditions ripping the field apart.
At five kilometres to go, Mark Flavin (Dungarvan CC) and Mark Quigley (Western Lakes) managed to get a small gap and that looked dangerous for a spell. But again, on such a fast run-in, the move proved to be futile though underlined their willingness to take the race by the scruff of the neck.
The sprint was a textbook effort from the Nicolas Roche Team in their debut season, Bruton showing superb sprinting legs to beat off much more seasoned riders. The Philip Finnegan-managed squad will be very pleased with their afternoon’s work, especially with the time-trial tomorrow favouring Foley, who won it last year.
Still, Dunbar is the reigning National Junior Champion at the discipline and there’s also a brutal stage to come tomorrow afternoon.
In the A4 event today, David Williams won in thrilling fashion on his own after attacking with around 10 kilometres to go and staying away to the finish, though only with a handful of seconds to spare.
He had nine seconds at that 10k to go banner but somehow managed to hold off the peloton which, like the A2-A3 race, fragmented badly on the climb between Newmarket and Freemount.
Full results when we have them.
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