The Junior Tour of Ireland opening road stage was action packed, with plenty of tough climbs for the riders to negotiate. Above, Nathan Pernot of the Nicolas Roche Performance Team-Magnet.ie claimed victory in a sprint from a depleted peloton (Photo: Stephen McMahon - Sportsfile)
Nathan Pernot won today’s opening road stage of the Scott Bicycles Junior Tour of Ireland, proving fastest in the bunch gallop into Ennis from Owen Line (Pro Vision Cycling Clothing) and Dion McCarthy (Munster Selection).
The talented Frenchman is riding for the NRPT-Magnet.ie team this week and he kept up their excellent record in the race with a sprint nobody could match.
It was a cracking stage on a challenging course featuring five stinging climbs.
Starting in Ennis, the riders headed north for Corrofin and on to Killinaboy, Ballyvaughan, Fanore, Doolin and up over the category one climb of Castle Hill after 66 kilometres before heading back into Ennis.
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But when a 12-man break escaped after the opening category three climb, the race took its first big twist.
Most of the big teams were represented, with the American Hot Tubes team there in force for their top men, including Jack Maddux and stage 1 TT winner and yellow jersey Gage Hecht.
Simon Tuomey of the Irish national team wore the points jersey today after finishing in 2nd place on the stage 1 TT in Co Clare (Photo: Stephen McMahon - Sportsfile)
This stage was where Eddie Dunbar sowed the seeds for his overall win last year when he took off solo, so anyone who missed the move today was in danger of seeing the race slip away.
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The Irish National team were represented by Marc Heaney; the young Carn Wheelers man doing a great ride to make the move.
However, his aspirations of trying for a stage win were short-lived when Irish team manager David McCann made the call for the remainder of the team to ride on the front and bring back the break.
Heaney was also instructed to stop riding up ahead, so he promptly sat on the back as Simon Tuomey, Darragh O’Mahony and Jake Gray all got to work at the head of the chasing peloton.
That trio rode for around half the stage on the front with no assistance, including up over the climb of Castle Hill.
But it was only with 10 kilometres to go that they reeled in the escape.
Race leader Gage Hecht of the American Hot Tubes team in action during today's stage 2 in The Burren (Photo: Stephen McMahon - Sportsfile)
Once the Irish team had caught the leading group, the US team Hot Tubes took up the pace-setting at the front, keen to discourage any attacks that might result in the yellow jersey Gage Hecht losing his lead.
The sprint was a fairly chaotic one but Pernot turned on the afterburners and was a convincing winner despite a fine effort from first-year junior Dion McCarthy who finished third.
Only 30 seconds separate the top 10 overall but that should all change tomorrow as the riders tackle a testing 97-kilometre leg from Mountshannon to Whitegate.
It’s a very hilly day with two categorised ascents; one outside Scarriff after eight kilometres and another at Maghera after 43km.
For full stage and classification results, click here.
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