Difficult day in French trenches for An Post's Irish debutants as climbs, speed split field

Jack Wilson and Ryan Mullen (both in green kit) getting through their first lung-bursting outing of the new season in France today.

The Irish quartet in the first European pro road race of the season have endured a very difficult day in France at the fast and lumpy Grand Prix d'Ouverture La Marseillaise.

Ryan Mullen, Marcus Christie and Conor Dunne were lining out in the colours of An Post-Chainreaction for the first time today while Jack Wilson was getting his second season underway for the squad.

With some of the biggest teams in the world on the start line and the massive shock to the system that the first race of the year always brings, it was inevitable that a tough day in the saddle awaited the Irish hopefuls on the 140km from Allauch to Marseillaise.

Dunne, who signed from Belgian team VL Technics–Abutriek in the winter and also took a stage in the An Post Rás last year, was best of the Irish on the day. He came home in 118^th place. He was in a large group that finished 10:43 after the 77-man bunch that sprinted for victory.

Wilson and Mullen came home at the back of the field in a small group and while they did finish the race they were outside the time limit and so were not given an official placing and time deficit. Christie was listed as having abandoned.

The race was won by one of Belgium’s most promising talents Kenneth Vanbilsen who rode for An Post-Chainreaction two years ago.

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The 2012 U23 Tour of Flanders victor took the bunch sprint today for his Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise team when he edged out Baptiste Planckaert (Roubaix-Lille Métropole) and Samuel Dumoulin (AG2R La Mondiale).

Victory was settled in a sprint after an early breakaway gained six minutes but was caught; only for a series of counter attacks to be fired off the front, the last of which was not reeled in until the final kilometre.

IAM Cycling, Giant-Shimano, FDJ.fr and Europcar were all prominent in the chasing at different times. And while Giant-Shimano had German sprint powerhouse John Degenkolb in their line-up, he could only manage 4^th.

The next race on An Post-Chainreaction’s agenda is the five-day Etoile de Besseges, which takes place in the south of France and starts on Wednesday.