Conor Dunne has a classification jersey at the Tour of Britain after the opening stage while Eddie Dunbar also showed himself off the front.
Irish international Conor Dunne has put in arguably the best ride of his career on the opening stage of the Tour of Britain today, Sunday.
The An Post-Chainreaction man spent almost the entire stage out front in a four-man escape, only being caught less than 2km from the finish line in Wrexham.
However, having targeted the hot spot sprints along the way, he now holds that jersey going into Monday’s second stage.
The opening leg took the field from Beaumaris in Anglesey, Wales, to Wrexham, with three hot spot sprints and three categorised climbs along the 177.7k route.
Dunne escaped in the breakaway not long after the start along with Kristian House (Condor-JLT), Tom Stewart (Madison-Genesis) and Pete Williams (ONE Pro Cycling).
Advertisement
Combining well, they built up a lead of nine minutes at one point and while they were ultimately caught, it was a good day for the escapees.
Dunne took the sprinters' jersey, House the climbers' jersey and Stewart the most of aggressive rider of the day award.
Dunbar during the team presentation on Saturday. The youngest rider in the race, he looked full of life off the front of the bunch up the cat 1 ascent on the opening stage.
Irish teenager Eddie Dunbar (NFTO Pro Cycling) sprung from the bunch to mop up some points in the climbers’ competition, signaling his intent to target that classification in coming days.
Dunbar took 5th over the top of the cat 1 Llanberis Pass after 57.9km, with last year's climbers' classification winner Mark McNally (Madison-Genesis) going head-to-head with Dunbar for the remaining points.
However, while there were points on offer at Llanberis Pass for the first six over the top, the two climbs that followed were cat 2 ascents meaning the breakaway mopped up all of the points on offer.
In the end, the breakaway Dunne was in was swept up well inside the closing 2km after Team Sky and Etixx-QuickStep took to the front of the peloton.
It looked like the breakaway may hold on as it had just over one minute with 10km remaining. And that gap opened a little as the finished approached.
However, when the move was finally reeled in, it was Elia Viviani (Team Sky) who pipped Mark Cavendish (Etixx-QuickStep) by the tiniest of margins to take the stage win and the first leader’s jersey of the race.
Dunne leads the breakaway on what was a fantastic day for him at the Tour of Britain.
Related News
When Dunne was caught, he lost some time on the run-in and eventually came home in 102nd place, some 23 seconds down.
Of the four Irishmen in the race, Ryan Mullen was best placed on the day. Riding his first race for Cannondale-Garmin, he finished 58th place and on the same time was winner Viviani.
Like Dunne, Dunbar also lost ground late in the day and relinquished 32 seconds; finishing 106th of the 118-man field.
Jack Wilson, a team mate of Dunne’s at An Post-Chainreaction, was 113th and lost 1:52 on the day.
Monday’s stage 2 takes the riders 159km from Clitheroe to Colne and is a day that can suit Dunbar or Dunne; with both very strong climbers.
It begins with the cat 1 Nick O’Pendle right at the start of the stage.
That is followed by the cat 1 Bleara Moor after 105km and the cat 2 Pendle Big End, crested at 123km and with just over 35km to the finish.
Dunne went for the sprints jersey and won the battle to take the lead in that classification into Monday's stage 2.
Topics
