Connor McConvey enjoys his moment on the podium receiving his climbers' classification jersey which he has won outright in Azerbaijan after today's final stage
Connor McConvey has taken his first major result of the year by lifting the climbers’ classification at the Tour of Azerbaijan following the concluding circuit race stage around the streets of the capital Baku today, Sunday.
The Belfast man has had a good five days in what was his home race now that he is riding for the Synergy Baku Azerbaijani-backed team.
He made the main breakaway on the first stage, along with fellow Irishman Stephen Halpin (Polygon Sweet Nice), and when the escape was swallowed up in the closing stages McConvey pushed on alone in pursuit of a stage win.
He was swallowed up by the peloton in the charge for the line with 700 metres remaining, though his team mate Christoph Schweizer emerged from the field to take the opening stage and first leaders’ jersey of the race.
Advertisement
McConvey was then in the mix on the following three stages, proving very aggressive but falling short of a big result.
However, on yesterday’s queen stage he went away in the early eight-man escape. The 22-year-old Czech rider Jan Hirt (Leopard Trek) closed them down and dropped the break to claim victory, though McConvey battled very well to distance the other escapees and take second on the stage.
That ride was enough to move him into the lead in the climbers’ classification, a jersey he held onto after today’s closing stage; some 12 laps of a 12km circuit around Baku. That stage was won by Tomas Variktus of the Lithuanian national team and did not have any impact on the general classification placings.
Ukrainian Sergiy Grechyn of Torku Sekerspor finished as overall winner, with McConvey in the climbers’ jersey and his team mate Schweizer taking the points classification. Another of the Synergy Baku riders, Oleksandr Surutkovych was second overall while Elchin Asadov of the new UCI Continental outfit took the win in the home rider classification.
Related News
While Dubliner Stephen Halpin rode strongly on the opening stage, he was outside the time limit the following day and that ended his participation in the race. That left Meath’s Mark Dowling and Monaghan’s Ryan Sherlock as the only two Irish riders remaining in the race for the Indonesian backed Polygon Sweet Nice team.
Both very good climbers, they rode well on yesterday’s queen stage. Dowling was 42nd, some 6:22 down on winner Hirt. However, McConvey in second place on the stage lost four minutes to the Czech rider so Dowling’s result was perhaps better than the time ceded to the winner suggests.
The former DID Dunboyne man would have placed higher on that stage had it not been for a late mechanical. He was climbing with the select group behind a small number of lone riders from the initial breakaway. However, his chain jammed with 1km remaining and he was forced to dismount and free it before getting going again.
Sherlock ended yesterday’s queen stage just two places behind Dowling, in 44th place and 6:31 down on winner Hirt.
On the final overall classification, McConvey was 15th at 8:58, Dowling was 43rd at 13:51 and Sherlock was 63rd at 18:18. The race will have provided some very good preparation for the An Post Rás for the Irish riders. The Rás-bound Synergy Baku team will be on a high after their week in Azerbaijan and will be looking to enjoy similar fortunes in the Irish eight-day.
The team has a strong Irish connection, with not only McConvey riding but also David McCann as a director sportif/rider and David McQuaid as technical director. It means the Rás will be their second ‘home race’ of the year, where they will be as eager to impress as they were in Azerbaijan over the last five days.
Sherlock and Dowling both also rode very strongly in the Rás last year and will be very much looking to make an impact now that they have gone from being club riders to members of a UCI-ranked international set-up.
Topics
