Darragh
O’Mahony was Ireland’s best finisher at the U23 Tour of Flanders yesterday,
placing 29th and just ten seconds off the winner.
O’Mahony
was in the group sprinting for victory when a crash deep into the final
kilometre ruined his chances.
While
he didn’t fall, he was caught behind it; being forced to stall almost to a halt
to get around the fallers.
With
just a few hundred metres remaining, there was no time to get back in the game.
And as O’Mahony rode up to the finish line, one of the race’s official cars
then stopped dangerously just ahead of him.
It was
a disappointing end to a strong race for him and Ireland as Dillon Corkery had
spent the first half of the Nations Cup event in the breakaway.
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He broke clear shortly after the start with Ben Hamilton of New Zealand and Matis Louvel from France.
— Sticky Bottle (@sticky_bottle) April 14, 2019
They combined well and their gap peaked at 4:30 with about 50km raced in the 167.5km race.
However,
when the peloton behind began to get organised, the lead quickly began to be
trimmed back.
With
100km remaining, Corkery and his breakaway companions were still leading, but
now the gap was back to just under three minutes.
The
Irish rider, a second-year U23 and the Irish elite criterium champion looked
very strong up front.
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And back in the bunch the Irish jerseys were mingling on the front of the peloton, militating against the chase effort.
On the Muur van Geraardsbergen, averaging nine per cent and topping out at just over 19 per cent, with 95km remaining Hamilton looked vulnerable as Corkery pressed.
However, it was Louvel who pressed ahead of the other two on the hardest section.
The Danes were active in the chase behind and when Corkery and Hamilton were caught, with about 85km to race; Louvel remained out front in a new five-man escape.
While
a number of groups would go clear, Team GB’s Tim Pidcock one of the main
aggressors, a reduced peloton of about 45 emerged at the front coming into the
closing stages.
O’Mahony was the sole Irish rider in that group, though his chances went by the wayside because of the late crash; Pidcock also falling and emerging worst of all.
Having
ridden very strongly all race, the Danes emerged with victory; Andreas Nielsen
just about edging out Cedric Beullens of Belgium and Britain’s Jake Stewart.
Corkery
paid for his efforts and was a non-finisher, as were Marc Heaney, Michael O’Loughlin
and Ben Healy.
Aside
from O’Mahony, Conn McDunphy was on the only other Irish finisher; placing 66th
in a group 5:38 down.
He had an eventful day and did well to make it to the finish. After a puncture after about 100km, another rider rode into him as he stopped for a wheel change.
However,
he fought back on and regained contact with what was left of the peloton just
before the Kwaremont.
After
he got over the climb in the much reduced peloton, he got caught up in another
crash which split the field in two, before another puncture with approximately
10km remaining.
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