Archie Ryan puts in top finish as Brandon McNulty wins in Spain | Video

Archie Ryan has ridden a great finale in Spain, showing his climbing talents against a stacked top 10 at the end of five hours of racing (Photo: Dion Kerckhoffs-Cor Vos)

Archie Ryan (EF Education-EasyPost) has taken another top result, this time showing his climbing abilities at the end of five hours of racing at Gran Premio Miguel Indurain (1.Pro).

And having won a stage at Coppi e Bartali the week before last, he has today demonstrated a very clear ability in tough one day races, taking one of the best results of his career deep inside a stacked top 10.

Young Irish rider Liam O'Brien was also in the race, putting in a strong performance for the Lidl-Trek World Tour team today. He was making his debut today for the World Tour team, after being upgraded from the development team, some 12 months after riding Rás Mumhan on the Irish junior team.

The 198km race was won by Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) from Maxim Van Gils (Lotto Dstny), who was 3rd in the recent Strade Binache after a fantastic battle on the final climb of the day, just before the finish in Estella.

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McNulty attacked from the remains of the peloton with about 10km to go, getting onto the final climb - Alto de Ibarra - about 15 seconds clear of the chasers. However, while he looked likely to stay clear for the short descent down to the finish, Van Gils had other ideas.

He attacked those he was with, including Ireland's Ryan, on the climb and not only got across to McNulty, but also dropped him before the top. However, McNulty managed to get back on before the flat run in to the finish and beat Van Gils in the two-up sprint for victory.

Ryan then finished in a small chase group just six seconds back after the remains of the peloton exploded on the last climb. Oscar Onley (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) finished just two seconds down, just ahead of Ryan, for 3rd.

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Then came Ion Izagirre (Cofidis) was 4th, at six seconds, and Ryan 5th at eight seconds. Another eight seconds elapsed before a chase group battled it out for 6th place, with former U23 road race champion, Samuele Battistella (Astana Qazaqstan Team) winning that battle.

On the same time - some 18 seconds behind McNulty - Clément Champoussin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) was 7th, Steff Cras (TotalEnergies) placed 8th, Max Schachmann (Bora-hansgrohe) 9th and Fernando Barceló (Caja Rural - Seguros RGA).

Ireland's O'Brien, who turned 19-years-old two weeks ago, did very well on his debut for the Lidl-Trek World Tour team, placing 76th at 4:49. Eddie Dunbar (Team Jayco AlUla) also made his comeback today after a crash-related injury and was a non-finisher.

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