Dillon Corkery (St Michel-Mavic-Auber 93) has continued his very strong run at Tour de Bretagne (2.2) today, with another top five placing after 203km of racing from La Gacilly to Saint-Méen-Le-Grand.
The 25-year-old former Irish criterium champion came through like a train in the latter stages of the reduced bunch sprint and may have taken an even better result if he had gotten a clearer run at the line a little earlier.
Corkery told stickybottle he woke up this morning feeling slightly ill and perhaps lacked a little bit of energy on the road today. Added to that, when a breakaway went clear his team was not represented, meaning they had to ride on the front "which wasn't ideal".
"But we did what we could and we sacrificed a few lads to make sure we were still in the GC fight," he said in reference to his team mate, South African Morné Van Niekerk, who is 2nd overall and just 34 seconds down on race leader Jakob Söderqvist (Lidl-Trek Future Racing).
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"Coming into the finish, I actually wasn't going to do the sprint because I was pretty gassed. And then I came past the finish line with one lap to go and then you see the line and it's only one more lap... so you think 'it's only one lap, what's it going to do to me?'
"I positioned myself well, not well enough, but it was the best I could have done at the time. And the last right hand corner was a bit sketchy. I crashed into the guys on my left and right, or they crashed into me over a speed bump with about 300 metres to go at 60k at hour
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"I destroyed my shoes because I rode into someone else's bike. But I was able to hold it up. I didn't really get to launch my sprint; coming to the line at savage speed. I think I just doubted myself a bit... because I was tired, but everyone else is also tired, so I need to think that way for the future.
"We have one more day to try and do the job with out man in 2nd overall," Corkery added "The final circuits tomorrow are brutal, absolutely brutal, but I think we can win the GC."
Today's stage was won in a sprint by Antonin Souchon (VC Pays de Loudéac) from Matys Grisel (Lotto Dstny Development Team) and Zeno Moonen (Wanty-ReUz-Technord), with Corkery 5th. He adds that to his 5th and 8th places on the opening two stages. He is also currently 10th overall at 1:43, after six stages.
Dean Harvey (Trinity Racing) is the only other Irish rider in the race and has been putting in a significant amount of work for his team on the front. He was a non-finisher today, though the reason for that was unclear. We will update when he get more information.
