Conor Murphy has claimed Team Ireland's first medal at the UEC European Road Championships in Étoile-sur-Rhône, France, this morning, living up to his star billing, reflected in the fact he started second from last.
Fastest of the field through the first two splits, Murphy ceded a little ground on the final climb, crested with 1.5km to go, with Michiel Mouris of the Netherlands edging past him and going on to win the gold medal.
However, Murphy's ride up that climb, and over the final 1.5km to the finish, was still supremely strong and he finished in the silver medal position, just five seconds down on Mouris after just over 30 minutes of racing.
Ireland was unluckly not to have two riders in the top 10 as David Gaffney put in a brilliant performance, to take 11th place, and was just four seconds off the top 10.
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Julius Løvstrup Birkedal (Denmark) took the bronze medal, some 28 seconds down on a day when Murphy and Mouris were way ahead of the rest of the field. Poland's Jan Michal Jackowiak was 4th at 49 seconds and 5th placed Eñaut Urkaregi (Spain) was a significant 56 seconds off the winning time.
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Irish teenager Murphy has been in flying form all season, winning the junior TT and road race national titles and equaling the Irish senior record over 10 miles, 17:42 set by Ryan Mullen over a decade ago.
Today, Murphy was in action in the 24km TT, from Loriol-sur-Drôme to Étoile-sur-Rhône, alongside fellow Irish riders Matthew Walls and David Gaffney.
In the 59-rider field today, Gaffney was 11th - at 1:30 - which was a fine performance in itself and Walls was 22nd, at 2:08, which was very solid at this level, to say the least.
In the junior women's TT, Aliyah Rafferty was the sole Irish rider and of the 51-rider field she was 22nd. IN the 12.2km test, Rafferty finished 1:27 down on new European champion, Paula Ostiz, the Spanish rider who won the junior road race at the Worlds just four days ago after claiming silve in the TT in Rwanda.
