Archie Ryan was among the finishers in the junior men's road race at the World Championships in Yorkshire after an epic encounter.
Unfortunately national junior TT champion Kevin McCambridge suffered a mechanical and was a non-finisher.
McCambridge needed a bike change as the US team was on the front hammering the pace up a lengthy climb in the rain, which fell on the riders for the day.
While McCambridge managed to get back onto what remained of the bunch, the climb really kicked in as he made contact and unfortunately he was distanced as he was in the red.
For his part, Archie Ryan said while he finished the event he was not on a good day.
He told stickybottle he was frustrated not to go as well as he could because the course should have suited him.
Advertisement
Ryan was among about 40 to 50 riders remaining in the reduced peloton when the Americans took over on the front and simply dominated the race.
However, when the racing spit again a little further on, Ryan found himself slipped off the back as the field split even more.
"I was was super hard," Ryan told stickybottle. "I felt bad and didn’t have the legs today.
Related News
"It was pretty disappointing because the super grippy course suited me.
"I got spat out the back over the top of the second climb after 85km. There was only about 45 lads left in the front group; was full gas all day and was carnage in the rain."
While Ryan lost touch he continued onto the circuits around Harrogate and eventually finished in 69th place just over 17 minutes down on a day when just 72 finished.
The Americans effectively gave the rest of the field a lesson in how to dominate a Worlds race.
After combining on the front to rip the field to pieces on the early climbs, when the winning five-man escape went clear the US had two riders in it; Quinn Simmons and Magnus Sheffield.
Both riders will be well known to many in Irish cycling as they have ridden the Junior Tour several times; Sheffield winning it this year.
Just as the breakaway was being closed down as the racing reached the Harrogate circuits, Simmons took off on his own with over 30km to go.
He simply powered around the three laps, with the Italians and other nations unable to get close to him once he took flight.
Behind him, Alessio Martinelli (Italy) eventually got clear of the chasing group to take the silver medal some 56 seconds down. And Sheffield then won the sprint from four chasers to take the bronze for the USA at 1:33.
Topics
