Stephen Halpin (fifth in line) and Connor McConvey (sixth) in the near stage-long escape at the Tour of Azerbaijan opener today
By Brian Canty
Connor McConvey appears to be back to somewhere near his best form after he put in a great effort on today’s opening stage of the Tour of Azerbaijan (UCI 2.2).
The Northern Irishman, riding for the Synergy Energy Baku Cycling Team, was part of the day’s 18-man break that broke clear of the peloton early on in the 157 kilometre trek around the capital city, Baku. That group also included Dubliner Stephen Halpin, who is one of three Irish riders in the race for Polygon Sweet Nice, along with Mark Dowling and Ryan Sherlock.
McConvey, formerly of An Post-Sean Kelly, had missed the initial move but stormed across the gap on his own to join the escapees.
The race was 11 laps of a 15 kilometre loop around the city, featuring one climb. Not content to sit in the break on the last lap as the peloton behind closed in, McConvey jumped away and took a Portuguese rider from the Efapel-Glassdrive team with him.
The latter didn’t last long however, and McConvey took off on his own, gunning it to the finishing line.
He was cruelly denied what would have been a fabulous stage win when he was caught 700 metres from the line, though the disappointment was tempered by the fact that his teammate Christoph Schweizer won the gallop.
The German powerhouse will wear the leader’s yellow jersey for tomorrow’s stage from Baku to Ismayilli, a stage that features three categorised climbs. The victory was an important one for the new team in its home race; a team that not only counts McConvey as a rider but also David McQuaid and David McCann at the head of the UCI Continental outfit.
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McConvey said it had been a surreal few days, capped by today’s result.
“It’s brilliant. There was a fair bit of pressure on us from ourselves being in the home city here. We’ve put so much work into this that to pull it off was brilliant. Christoph took it up from far out and executed it perfectly."
“I hadn’t planned on being in the move today but it happened that a big group got away and got about 20 seconds after 30k so I crossed it by myself. We were about 120k out front and I attacked the break with about one lap to go and it was pretty much flat out. I ended up with a Portuguese guy but he was doing very soft turns so I was pretty much alone and I went away from him and was caught with about 700metres to go by the bunch that had swallowed up the break. But Christoph came around and I saw him put his hands up so it was great.”
McConvey said he’s stayed in good shape since the Tour of Thailand, where he also rode very well.
“I’ve had a decent training block since Thailand and I’m in good shape so hopefully I can keep doing what I’m doing and a personal result will come soon. We’ve a great team here and we’re delighted to get something out of it.”
As regards the team presentation last night, McConvey said he was blown away by the scale of it.
“It was massive! It was really, really big. I was blown away. One of the McCrossan brothers was doing the introducing on stage and there were thousands of people there to see it; it was like the Tour. They built a stage and it was a big start alright. We had our own presentation here last week with TV cameras and everything. It’s on TV here every night and the organisation has been great so let’s hope it continues.”
McConvey was 62nd over the line but lost no time. Ryan Sherlock came in as part of the main bunch in 108th position, Mark Dowling lost 22 second and is 108th overall while Stephen Halpin lost 1.23 and is 133rd after his earlier breakaway exploits. Another Irish-born man, Robert-Jon McCarthy, riding for an Australian development team, was 123rd, 30 seconds down.
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