Conor Dunne on his way to his best result of the season for An Post-Chainreaction at the Tour d’Azerbaijan.
Just 24 hours after its British rider Josh Edmondson took the team’s first win of the season at the Tour d’Azerbaijan, Conor Dunne has scored another podium placing on the race for An Post-Chainreaction.
Dunne made it into the day’s early breakaway on the 205km penultimate stage 4, with that group working well together and building a lead that went north of five minutes at one point.
And while chasing behind by the Adria Mobil squad of race leader Primoz Roglic ensured the breakaway men’s lead wasn’t allowed to get out of control, the leaders stuck doggedly to their task.
And on a day expected to suit the sprinters before the more testing parcours of tomorrow’s final outing, the breakaway succeeded.
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With 40km remaining the gap was down to three minutes and it looked like they may be caught.
Daniel Turek of Cycling Academy taking victory ahead of Clémens Fankhauser; the Hrinkow Advarics rider who won the An Post Rás last year.
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But while that lead reduced further to 2:30 with 20km remaining, the escapees held on to most of that gap heading into the last 10km, when they still had just under two minutes in hand.
By the finish the advantage was down to 42 seconds, with Daniel Turek (Cycling Academy Team) taking the victory ahead of Clémens Fankhauser (Hrinkow Advarics Cycleangteam), who won the An Post Rás last year and is returning next weekend to defend that title.
Dunne was next, with the last breakaway man, Griffin Easter (Airgas-Safeway), taking 4th place just behind him.
The bunch sprint for 5th place on the day was won by Brenton Jones (Drapac Professional Cycling).
There was no change at the head of the overall standings.
The only other two riders left in the race; Ryan Mullen of An Post-Chainreaction and Stephen Clancy of Novo Nordisk finished in the bunch.
An Post-Chainreaction's Sean Downey has forced out after stage 1 when he fell ill and is now a real doubt for the Rás, which starts next weekend.
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