Adam Lewis and Conn McDunphy, the former Irish elite TT champion, went long today and really made it could at Tour of the Gila in the United States
Just 24 hours after Cian Keogh got up the road for APS Pro Cycling by Team Cadence Cyclery at Tour of the Gila (2.2) in the United States his two team mates - including Ireland's Conn McDunphy - went long and won the day.
British rider Adam Lewis and former Irish TT champion McDunphy went clear with about 80km still to race on today's stage 3. They put their heads down and drove for the finish line, making it all the way into Fort Bayard.
They made their move on the 123km stage after a number of small groups had gone clear on two early climbs, each of just over 4km and coming one after the other.
While Lewis was in one of those early groups, it all came back together on the long descent, where he went again, this time with McDunphy. And as they worked hard out front, their gap over the peloton simply continued to grow.
Advertisement
When they reached the final climb of the day - a 3km cat 3 with just over 20km remaining - their advantage was still over four minutes. At that point, barring incident or a major collapse, they had it in the bag.
Related News
And that was the way it stayed to the finish; the chasing pack picking up the pace on the run-in and reducing the gap to McDunphy and Lewis, but the Irish-British pair staying clear to win by a big margin.
They sailed across the line side-by-side celebrating their 1-2, some 1:41 up on what remained of the peloton. That near 60-rider group was led in by Mexico's Carlos Alfonso García (Olinka Project) who won the sprint for 3rd place.
McDunphy's raid up the road today comes after he has been very aggressive in UCI-ranked races in recent years, including riding for Team Skyline for the past two seasons.
That aggression delivered a fantastic 1-2 today, with Lewis crossing the line first just a few inches ahead of Ireland's McDunphy, though it was very much a joint effort.
McDunphy adds his result today to his recent win on home roads in the Des Hanlon Memorial, as well as victory in UCI-ranked stage races in recent years.
Those wins have come at Tour de Beauce (2.2) in Canada, last year and in 2024, as well as Tour of Szeklerland (2.2) in Romania two years ago.
