Connor McConvey aggressive at Tour of Thailand; 2nd on stage & nudges closer to yellow

Connor McConvey has taken 2^nd on a stage at the Tour of Thailand and is hopeful of more

By Graham Healy

Connor McConvey (Synergy-Baku) put in another great performance today in the Tour of Thailand (2.2) when he was narrowly beaten into second place by Turakit Boonratanathanakorn at the end of the 200-kilometre stage from Chumporn to Ranong.

The pair had broken clear of the bunch along with Mohd Fauzan Ahmad Lufti and finished 14 seconds up on the line.

Afterwards, McConvey described the difficulty he had in getting away: “It was a pretty rolly stage, constant attacking, but at the same time pretty negative tactics. I got away a few times in the last 60km, but nothing was sticking. So a few guys from the team marked the moves and we put all the eggs into one basket- one big move 8km out.”

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His two breakaway companions were already clear, but the Belfast man managed to bridge across to them. When he made the juncture he was still unsure whether he could pull off the move and gain the time needed to take over the yellow jersey.

“I wasn't sure it was going to work because the jersey and a couple of other teams on GC still had numbers in the break. But I got a gap and bridged to two guys up the road. The headwind on a big road made it really hard to take more time.”

On the run-in he said spoke to the other two in the break and they told the Irishman that they would be content to sit on and take 2^nd. McConvey took them at their word but admitted he won’t be making that mistake again after the stage win went elsewhere.

He has now moved up one place to 6^th place overall, and has reduced his deficit to race leader Muhd Shaiful Anuar Aziz to 35 seconds. Just two stages remain before the race finishes in Phuket on Saturday but on his current form McConvey is in a good position to challenge for both a stage win and a win overall.

He remains upbeat about his prospects, saying: “I was riding to take time and I achieved that and a 2^nd is still pretty nice. There’s still a couple of days left, so we’ll see what happens.”