Darragh O’Mahony has retained the
climbers’ jersey at the Tour de Normandie on stage 3. The Irish cyclist is also
up to 8th overall and is 2nd in the young rider classification.
O’Mahony also survived in the much
reduced peloton on the 148km stage today from Bourg-Achard to Elbeuf-sur-Seine.
With 100km covered in the opening two
hours, no breakaway went clear on the undulating stage on grippy roads.
Italian Cristian Scaroni of Groupama-FDJ’s
Continental managed to collect points on the climbs and he now has 23 points to
O’Mahony’s 25.
By the end of the stage there were just 46 riders in the front group; a climb with 5km remaining splitting the field after it had already been softened up by the fast hard racing.
O’Mahony finished in 16th place on the
same time as winner Arvid de Kleijn (Metec-TKH Continental).
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The Dutch rider won from race leader Nicolai
Brøchner (Riwal Readynez) who had claimed the opening stage.
While there was only a matter of 17
seconds back to the next group of riders, most of the field was minutes down.
And that meant many riders were taken
out of the general classification hunt. That saw O’Mahony nudge one place
higher to eight overall.
In the young rider classification he is
2nd and just four seconds off the leader Stef Krul (Metec-TKH Continental).
Darragh O’Mahony is now 14 seconds off
the race leader Brøchner, who has been 1st, 5th and 2nd on the three stages so
far.
The racing continues until Sunday with O’Mahony,
of French team CC Nogent-sur-Oise, looking very strong so far.
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