Liam O'Brien is going through an incredibly difficult period in his life, but his courage and class were on display today as he lit it up on the road to Saint-Christophe
Liam O'Brien (Lidl Trek Future Racing) has put in an incredible day on the attack in the mountains during today's epic stage 3 at Giro Ciclistico della Valle d'Aosta-Mont Blanc (2.2U).
In his first race back after the tragic death of his brother, Shane (16), in a training ride crash last month, O'Brien went all out to take the win today.
He got himself into the large breakaway, distancing them at will on the penultimate climb and setting off on his own with almost 60km remaining.
It took the two best riders in the race to catch him, overall leader Henrique Bravo (Soudal Quick-Step Devo Team), from Brazil, and Ecuador's Mateo Ramírez (UAE Team Emirates Gen Z).
And O'Brien made them work for it all the way. He was only reeled in by them on the final climb before the big descent to the finish in Saint-Christophe after 155km of racing.
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In the end, it was Ramírez who won the day, in a three-up sprint from Bravo, with O'Brien in 3rd place. The Irishman put in one of the best rides of his career, and easily the most courageous.
At the finish, Mateo Ramírez was just a bit too strong in the uphill sprint for Henrique Bravo and Liam O'Brien, though the young Irish rider was the man of the day
On a day with 4,000m of climbing, Irish first-year U23, David Gaffney (Hagens Berman Jayco), also did well, placing 38th, of 107 starters, at 13:07.
Adam Rafferty (Hagens Berman Jayco) and Patrick Casey (NSN Cycling Team Devo) both finished in a group at 28:34, in 92nd and 94th respectively.
Liam O'Brien's Big Day Out
With 59km to go, the 17-man breakaway group O'Brien was in arrived at the base of the penultimate climb of the day, the Jeanceyaz, which was 6.1km at just over eight per cent gradient.
And though he was such a long way from the line, O'Brien struck out solo, dropping all of the others immediately the climb started. The remains of the peloton was just 1:15 down at that point.
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The Irish rider powered up the climb solo, taking maximum points at the top, before descending. His advantage on the remains of the peloton - now a general classification group - had gone out to over two minutes.
Immediately the descent was done, the road kicked up again as the riders tackled the final, and hardest, climb of the day, the Saint-Barthlémy, at 17km averaging 5.7 per cent.
As that climb progressed, O'Brien continued to push on solo at the head of the race, as the select group was reduced to just four, and finally two, riders.
Race leader Bravo (Soudal Quick-Step Devo Team) and Ramírez (UAE Team Emirates Gen Z) attacked with 32km remaining, about two thirds of the way up that final climb.
About 3km later, they had caught O'Brien, and as they did, Ramírez, put in a big dig in a bid to drop the Irish rider, who was up to the challenge.
O'Brien responded to that move, dug in and got into the small group with Bravo and Ramírez, after a fashion.
Bravo and Ramírez initially opened a gap on the Irish rider and went over the top of the climb with a very clear advantage over him. O'Brien was distanced, and looked like he may be absorbed by a couple of chasers.
But he flew down the descent much faster than the two leaders and caught them with 16km to go, around 14km after they had distanced him.
The leading trio then raced into the finish, where Ramírez was simply too strong, winning the sprint for the stage victory by two seconds from Bravo and O'Brien.
Just before the line, the road kicked up, with O'Brien going early. However, having been in the breakaway for the day and ridden most of the two big climbs solo, his legs let him down a little, denying him a victory he dearly would have loved.
Still, it was big day for the Cork man, who has shown repeatedly he is a world class climber - and descender - and doing it again today, in a very difficult period for him and his family.
O'Brien, who lost time on the opening stages as he eased himself back into race action, is now 20th overall at 15:38, with tomorrow's summit finish at Breuil Cervinia to conclude the race.
