Chris McGlinchey pulls big performance out of the bag in Yorkshire

Irish rider Chris McGlinchey, in the colours of Vitus, riding in the breakaway on stage 2 of the Tour de Yorkshire; enjoying a great day out front

Completely new to top level pro racing, Chris McGlinchey has gone on the attack at the Tour de Yorkshire; lasting longest in the breakaway and only being caught as the finish line neared.

The Irish rider is competing in
his first season at Continental level this year at the age of 25 years.

A late-comer to cycling, he
went from A4 to A1 in a matter of weeks and quickly gained U23 and elite
international selection having come from a downhill background.

Major milestones in his career
have included overall victory at Rás Mumhan and silver in the nationals to Ryan
Mullen in 2017.

After taking that medal in the
championships he opted out of cycling for a period to travel. On his return
last year he began winning very quickly again on the home scene.

He then bagged a place at Vitus Pro Cycling for this season and has now gone on the attack in his first race rubbing shoulders with WorldTour riders.

There was a lot of attacks off the front before the breakaway formed

The breakaway having swelled to six; McGlinchey in red behind Kiwi champion Fouche in the white jersey national champ's jersey.

Today’s 132km Tour de Yorkshire second stage from Barnsley to Bedale today was another wet affair.

Chris McGlinchey got up the
road in the first of two clusters of riders that would ultimately join forces,
creating the breakaway.

And while they would be caught
and Rick Zabel (Katusha Alpecin) won the stage in a bunch sprint; McGlinchey
can be very happy with an excellent showing, as was the case with Kelly Murphy
in the women’s race.

In the initial move with the
Irishman were: Tom Stewart (Canyon DHB), Fabien Grellier (Total Direct Energie)
and Jake Scott (Swiftcarbon).

They set their stall out
immediately; combining well to pull out a gap. Team Wiggins young guns Rob
Scott and James Fouché, the Kiwi elite champion, got across to the escape,
making it six up front.

Some 24 hours earlier the bunch had been outwitted, just about, by a breakaway when Jesper Asselman (Roompot-Charles) hung on out front to win.

Zabel takes his first win in four years and only his team's second victory of the 2019 season ad Marcel Kittel continues to struggle with bad form

Crowds once again packed the roadsides though the weather was wet.

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The big teams in the race were clearly keen to avoid a repeat today, as was the yellow jersey’s team.

And that meant the breakaway
was kept on a tight leash.

Indeed, their gap was under one
minute with 40km to go but then went back out again. However, over the next
20km the race leader’s team got busy on the front and closed them down more.

With 16km remaining the
breakaway enjoyed a lead of less than 20 seconds. But at that point Stewart
attacked the leaders and was joined by McGlinchey, as the others were caught.

The Irishman and the British rider
pressed on as a leading duo; a really impressive show of class and attitude from
McGlinchey.

In the end there were attacks
off the front of the peloton before the two leaders were caught; something
which only came to pass just over 3km from the finish.

By that point McGlinchey had
taken 3^rd in the Pontefract sprint prime and 3^rd on the Cote
de Lindley, the only classified climb of the day.

In the end Zabel won the sprint
from Boy van Poppel (Roompot-Charles) and Chris Lawless (Team Ineos).

After being caught so late,
McGlinchey lost just 19 seconds, finishing in 87^th. The other three
Irish riders in the race finished in the bunch on the same time as the winner.

Eddie Dunbar (Team Ineos) was
28^th while the Canyon duo of Robbie McCarthy and Rory Townsend were 33^rd
and 74^th.

Tomorrow’s stage 3 takes the riders 132km from Bridlington to Scarborough features five short and sharp climb.