Dan Clifford has gone very close to an international podium placing at the Tour of India after he just about missed out on third place on the final leg of the series in Delhi.
The DID Dunboyne man, who guested with Lakeside Mullingar at the three-race series in India, won the sprint from a chase group that trailed the two leaders by 33 seconds at the finish.
The 128km race on Sunday was run over 25 laps of a 5.1km circuit on the F1 track in Delhi.
With the two leaders well ahead coming in towards the finish, another rider attacked Clifford’s group and built a gap. While the Irishman closed right up on him on the line, his kick just about failed to overhaul him and Clifford was forced to settle for fourth on the day and 10th in the series.
Advertisement
The UCD CC duo of Con Colis and Ciaran O’Conluain also made that select group just behind the two leaders and finished in 9th and 10th place respectively. It was Colis’s second top ten of the series after he grabbed 9th on the second stage in Srinagar last Tuesday. The series opened last Sunday week with a 128km race in Mumbai.
Related News
Selections from UCD and Lakeside rode the series after David McQuaid organised invitations for them. The field in the three races included a number of national teams from Thailand as well as the Astana feeder squad.
Clifford told stickybottle he was happy with his fourth spot.
“But I suppose when you’re that close to the podium it’s always disappointing not to get on it. I thought coming over that it was just going to be a case of survival but I was pretty happy with my form. I used my head and didn't waste any energy. My teammate for the week Chris Reilly also put in very strong turns to try and keep things together for me for the final.”
“I think if I had approached the first day with a bit more confidence I could possibly have gotten a good result. I tried going across to the break with two laps to go but I just ran out of time.”
“The trip in general has been very amazing. It was such an experience to travel around India and even though it was very last minute I was delighted to get the opportunity from David McQuaid to come out and ride for Lakeside; Shay O’Toole and Mike Reynolds couldn’t have done enough for us, they really made life easy for us.”
Tour of India, Stage 3 - Delhi, Sunday December 9th, 128km
| Rank | Bib | Name | Club | Nation | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 14 | Panassenko Nikita | KAZ | KAZ | 02:57:21 |
| 2 | 4 | Plarre Matthias | LKT | GER | " |
| 3 | 31 | Akparov Abdullo | UZB | UZB | +33 |
| 4 | 12 | Clifford Daniel | LWM | IRE | " |
| 5 | 23 | Sanikwathi Thanawut | THA | THA | " |
| 6 | 29 | Lozovoy Dmitriy | UZB | UZB | " |
| 7 | 40 | Pilippenge J Manjula Jayasinghe Silva | SRI | SRI | " |
| 8 | 22 | Sirironnachai Sarawut | THA | THA | " |
| 9 | 64 | Collis Con | UCD | IRE | " |
| 10 | 10 | O' Conluain Ciaran | UCD | IRE | " |
| 11 | 34 | Fedorov Ruslan | UZB | UZB | " |
| 12 | 1 | Bormann Maximilian | LKT | GER | " |
| 13 | 20 | Liphongyu Navuti | THA | THA | " |
| 14 | 33 | Abramov Nikita | UZB | UZB | " |
| 15 | 16 | Zhaksylyk Pazylbek | KAZ | KAZ | " |
| 16 | 60 | Ram Jetha | DEP | IND | " |
| 17 | 30 | Golovin Dmitriy | UZB | UZB | " |
| 18 | 15 | Gaineyev Robert | KAZ | KAZ | +41 |
| 19 | 35 | W D Buddhika Warnakulasooriya | SRI | SRI | " |
| 20 | 2 | Deckert Sebastian | LKT | GER | +45 |
| 21 | 19 | Boonratanathanakorn, Thurakit | THA | THA | +53 |
| 22 | 3 | Knup Tobias | LKT | GER | +1:03 |
| 23 | 52 | Panwar Arvind | IND | IND | +1:21 |
| 24 | 32 | Gumerov Timur | UZB | UZB | +3:49 |
| 25 | 50 | Singh Sarpreet | IND | IND | +5:40 |
| 26 | 57 | Savanur Sridhar | KYN | IND | " |
| 27 | 79 | Pandurang | T2 | IND | " |
| 28 | 53 | N Lokesh | KYN | IND | " |
| 29 | 85 | Bassapa | T2 | IND | " |
| 30 | 37 | Mahamalage Nipuna Shiran Fernando | SRI | SRI | " |
| 31 | 91 | Vikram | T2 | IND | " |
| 32 | 24 | Kawaothong Ritthiroek | THA | THA | " |
| 33 | 8 | Richardson Ian Williams | UCD | IRE | " |
| 34 | 41 | Singh Amresh | IND | IND | " |
| 35 | 80 | Mallapa | T2 | IND | " |
| 36 | 42 | Kumar Pankaj | IND | IND | " |
| 37 | 63 | Ashish K | DEP | IND | " |
| 38 | 44 | Singh Gurmeet | IND | IND | " |
| 39 | 82 | Deepak | T2 | IND | " |
| 40 | 56 | Laxman Kurani | KYN | IND | " |
| 41 | 62 | Chareen C | DEP | IND | " |
| 42 | 17 | Kabdash Askhat | KAZ | KAZ | " |
| 43 | 25 | Almansoori Jaber | UAE | UAE | " |
| 44 | 47 | Tomar Munesh Singh | IND | IND | " |
| 45 | 39 | Wijelath Pedige Lakshman Wijeratn | SRI | SRI | " |
| 46 | 58 | Onkar Jadhav | KYN | IND | " |
| 47 | 45 | Shankar Vyas Ravi | IND | IND | " |
| 48 | 55 | Sangamesh Mallappa Talwar | KYN | IND | " |
| 49 | 46 | Sombir | IND | IND | " |
| 50 | 81 | Dilawar | T2 | IND | " |
Topics
