Conor Dunne drives the three-man breakaway as the racing hits the mountains on the Tour de Taiwan.
Having infiltrated the breakaway on Sunday's opening stage at the Tour of Taiwan and finished 7th, Conor Dunne was up the road again yesterday.
The JLT-Condor Irish international made the three-man escape that dominated stage 3 as the race reached the first big climbs.
And while he would be caught by a select group with 3km remaining as his two breakaway companions hung on for 1st and 2nd, he has moved up to 5th overall and given himself a real chance of a career-best general classification ride.
Tuesday's stage 3 took the riders 118km from Taoyuan City to Jiaobanshan Park, with Dunne forging ahead in what would prove to be the winning escape with around 50km remaining.
Advertisement
Eventual stage winner Peter Schulting leads Ireland's Conor Dunne as they move away from the peloton on what were tough roads in Taiwan that split the field to pieces.
For company he had Peter Schulting (Parkhotel Valkenburg) and Anthony Giacoppo (Avanti IsoWhey Sports).
Working well as a unit they built up a lead of four minutes over the peloton.
Up the steep cat 1 climb to Jiabanshan Park, Dutch rider Schulting pressed on alone to win the stage from Giacoppo.
Related News
Dunne was absorbed by what remained of the peloton; just under 40 riders finishing 33 seconds behind the winner.
The former An Post-Chainreaction rider climbed up to 5th overall and now trails the race leader Ben Alexander O'Connor (Avanti IsoWhey Sports) by just 2 seconds.
There are two stages remaining, both of which feature climbing that may well suit the Irishman if he can pick himself up and recover from his heroics of recent days.
Dunne, second in line, spent a large portion of the Tour of Britain in breakaways last year before going to the World Road Championships on the Irish team in the US just after it and getting up the road again there. And he's continued the aggression into the new season having switched from An Post-Chainreaction to JLT-Condor during the off season.
Stage 3: Taoyuan City to Jiaobanshan Park (118km)
1 Peter Schulting (Ned) Parkhotel Valkenburg 2:44:43
2 Anthony Giacoppo (Aus) Avanti IsoWhey 0:00:25
3 Neil Van Der Ploeg (Aus) Avanti IsoWhey 0:00:33
4 Marco Canola (Ita) UnitedHealthcare
5 Edwin Alcibiades Avila Vanegas (Col) Team Illuminate
6 Marco Zanotti (Ita) Parkhotel Valkenburg
7 Kevin De Jonghe (Bel) Cibel-Cebon
8 Salvador Guardiola Tora (Esp) Team Ukyo
9 Francisco Mancebo Perez (Esp) Skydive Dubai
10 Zhandos Bizhigitov (Kaz) Vino 4-Ever Sko
38 Conor Dunne (Irl) JLT Condor all same time
General Classification
1 Ben Alexander O'Connor (Aus) Avanti IsoWhey 7:16:16
2 Kevin De Jonghe (Bel) Cibel-Cebon 0:00:02
3 Flavio De Luna (Mex) Team Illuminate
4 Yuma Koishi (Jpn) Nippo - Vini Fantini
5 Conor Dunne (Irl) JLT Condor
6 Peter Schulting (Ned) Parkhotel Valkenburg 0:00:14
7 Alexander Ray (NZl) Team Illuminate 0:00:35
8 Anthony Giacoppo (Aus) Avanti IsoWhey Sports 0:00:43
9 Marco Canola (Ita) UnitedHealthcare 0:00:46
10 William Clarke (Aus) Drapac Pro Cycling
Conor Dunne, sitting down, looking pretty wasted at the end of another aggressive day in Taiwan.
Topics
