FBD Talent Team takes Belgian win with Dion McCarthy, Jake Gray and Michael O'Loughlin

You'll Never Beat The Irish: Jake Gray (left) and Dion McCarthy celebrate their 1-2 on the Belgian youth kermesse scene yesterday, Saturday.

The Fermoy teenager Dion McCarthy has taken a great victory in Belgium while riding for Cycling Ireland’s ‘FBD Talent Team 2020’ youth squad.

McCarthy, who won a number of races in Britain and one in Belgium last season, was quickest in the bunch sprint at the end of the 60km Laakdal Klein kermesse yesterday, Saturday.

And right behind him in second place was his Irish team mate Jake Gray, with another of the boys in green Michael O’Loughlin coming home in seventh spot.

Adam Stenson is also abroad with the squad and he finish 15^th, with Declan Mulholland 23^rd and Aaron Swan 38^th; all good results in a race where a very large number of riders did not finish.

O’Loughlin has been in great form this season and is again riding for the Canyon Young Heroes squad for some periods this summer, as he did last year.

That squad is sponsored by the bike manufacturer and brings together some of the best teenage talent from all over Europe for training camps and racing assignments.

Riding with the team last month in the Tour of Assen in Holland, O’Loughlin finished second on the TT stage and was yesterday called upon to use that horsepower to aid his Ireland team mates in the closing stages.

The trio of McCarthy, O’Loughlin and Gray made their way into the decisive breakaway of the race, which went clear from the 75-strong bunch on lap four of 60 laps.

That group built a gap of 1:30 and while it came down to 1 minute by the finish, it always looked like the escapees would survive to fight it out for the spoils.

In the final laps the Irish trio demonstrated the street smarts and team work that seems to have come with racing abroad in the past couple of summers – most of that with the FBD Talent Team 2020 set-up.

The three riders made sure they muscled in at the head of the lead group. O’Loughlin then took on the lead-out responsibility for the other two; hitting the front with 300 metres to go.

When he pulled over after his big turn on the front, Gray and McCarthy were very well placed to finish off the job.

And when they turned on the afterburners in the lunge to the line they did not disappoint, taking a fantastic 1-2 that provides the national set-up they are benefiting from with a very welcome boost.