David Gaffney (Team 31 Jolly Cycles) has put in a very strong performance in his first year UCI-ranked race, with fellow Irish junior Joseph Mullen (Zappi Racing) also going very well today in the same race in Spain.
Gaffney, who took 11th overall in the recent Dornan Rás Mumhan as a first-year junior, proved one of the strongest on a late climb on the opening stage of Gipuzkoa Klasika (2.1) in the Basque Country.
"I was really happy with the performance, especially in my first UCI race as a first-year junior," Gaffney told stickybottle.
Of 170 starters, he took 17th on the stage but, crucially, the made the front split that went clear over the top of the last climb before the descent into the finish.
As well as Gaffney and Mullen proving strong in the final today, Willem O'Connor of E Tarrant & Sons LTD Skoda Munster Team was also in a breakaway for a large chunk of the stage.
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"The course really suited me, there was a lot of climbing and I really like that. And I was also very fortunate to get good help from my team.
"I'd hope to come back next year and do every better again. And that's my main goal, to gain experience in all the big races this year and have a proper go at it next year as a second-year junior.
"It was a very technical stage overall today, lots of crashes and lots of traffic island and roundabouts. It was new… compared to what I am used to in Ireland and I was happy with how I handled it."
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The riders raced a 93.6km race today, starting and finishing in Ormaiztegi with three climbs; one of 2km at 5.7 per cent, another of 2.6km at eight per cent and the final climb of the day, a cat 2 some 8.4km long, at 4.2 per cent, crested some 9km from the finish.
Going up that last climb the field had come down to about 50 riders. Over the top of the ascent, Gaffney made an important split at the front as the race broke up, with Mullen as in attendance at the front during that moment of maximum pressure.
On the descent a breakaway of nine riders managed to forge clear, with the gap staying at just under 10 seconds for the final run in to the line; Gaffney in the next group on the road.
He sprinted to 17th place, finished in an 11-man group that was just eight seconds down on the eight breakaway man. Mullen was just behind Gaffney's group, finished in 22nd place at 45 seconds.
The stage was on in a sprint from the breakaway by Baptiste Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ U19 Team), with fellow Frenchman Timothy Coudiere Cantin (Guidon Machecoulais) 2nd. The final spot on the podium was taken by Dutch rider Jurgen Zomermaand (Willebrord Wil Vooruit).
Aside from Gaffney and Mullen, E Tarrant & Sons LTD Skoda Munster Team are also competing, with its best finisher, Cal Tutty, in 41st at 2:11, a week after a very strong performance in Belgium.
Munster's Michael Collins and Willem O'Connor were 70th and 121st today, at 4:05 and 8:34 while Rory Condon was among a large number of non-finishers as crashes took their toll today.
