Sam Bennett is the new Irish elite men's road race champion after a fantastic title race in Derry today. Above, beating Eddie Dunbar (out of shot) in a two-up sprint for victory (Photo: Toby Watson)
Sam Bennett has won the Irish men’s road
race title at the National Road Championships in Derry City.
Eddie Dunbar of Team Ineos took the silver and Ryan Mullen of Trek-Segafredo claimed the bronze; the three WorldTour men in the field taking the medals.
Sam Bennett (Bora-hansgrohe) and Eddie
Dunbar (Team Ineos) were part of a breakaway that dominated the race.
They went clear early with Mark Dowling
(Unattached) and Darragh O’Mahony (CC Nogent-sur-Oise).
While O’Mahony lost his place in the breakaway it was unclear if he was dropped or suffered a mechanical.
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Indeed, he rode very strongly for the rest of the race; getting clear in the chase group as the field split to pieces in the closing laps and he eventually claimed the U23 title.
Ben Healy (Team Wiggins) was also in that chase group and he took U23 silver, with the U23 bronze going to Marc Heaney (Asfra Racing).
EvoPro Racing, Ireland's new team riding at UCI Continental level in Europe this year, claimed the team prize.
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When eventual U23 title race winner O’Mahony lost his place in the breakaway, that left three up the road.
And they had close to 1:30 on the closest chase group behind when the race was stopped with just over four laps to go due to a crash.
When the contest was restarted, the
event was shortened by a lap, leaving the riders with three laps to do.
Shortly after the restart a chase group
formed and it looked like they may close up on the leaders.
However, Bennett, Dunbar and Dowling dug deep and kept the gap over 1½ minutes.
Dowling rode out of his skin in staying
with the two leaders but with one lap to go he too lost his place.
And that left the two biggest names in
the race out front to battle for the title; climber Eddie Dunbar and Team Ineos
and sprinter Sam Bennett of Bora-hansgrohe.
In the final 5km there were a number of
attacks up front between Dunbar and Bennett, but it came down to a sprint which
Bennett won.
Dunbar took the silver and unfortunately
for him, Dowling was caught by the chasing group so did not get a medal out of
his fantastic ride.
Ryan Mullen, the Trek-Segafredo man who
won the TT title again on Thursday night, attacked the chasing group and came
in solo for bronze.
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