Daire Feely - in black and fluro - has been on the attack against the pros in Japan, being in the points on the cat 1 ascent on stage 3 of the Tour de Hokkaido.
With three stages completed at the Tour de Hokkaido (2.2) in Japan Ronan McLaughlin is best overall of the Spin 11.com Irish selection.
The former An Post-Chainreaction man proved strongest of the Irish riders on the ramp up to the finish in Kutchan after 180km of racing.
However, the Irish riders’ finishing positions only tell half the story; with Daire Feeley having ridden very well and been off the front in the breakaway for much of the mountain stage.
The Roscommon U23 rider showed he can mix it well on the international stage, even taking 3rd place on the cat 1 climb.
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Feeley was part of a near 50km five-man breakaway and his presence in that move, along with some strong riding for the rest of the Irish, has proven an invaluable experience for them that will hopefully be repeated with more visits to this.
The Spin11.com team in Japan, left to right: O'Mahoney, McGlinchey, McAuley, McLaughlin, Feeley.
Unfortunately from an Irish perspective not all the news is good. Craig McAuley’s race is over after a bad crash on yesterday afternoon’s stage 2.
And on today’s stage 3 Chris McGlinchey suffered untimely mechanicals and his race is also over.
The Irish riders’ travel to Japan was delayed when their flight from Osaka to Sapporo was delayed due to typhoon in Hokkaido.
It resulted in a long day before they finally got another flight; not ideal preparation for racing and frustratingly out of their control.
But with three men – McLaughlin, Feeley, Daire O’Mahoney – still in the fight and riding well with one stage remaining the Spin11.com outfit will be looking to get in amongst the pros again.
Nariyuki Masuda (Utsunomiya Blitzen) wins Thursday afternoon's stage 2 after the morning prologue TT and he still leads the race after today's third stage.
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Today’s stage 3 was won by Pier Paolo de Negri (Nippo-Vini Fantini) who led in a group of seven on all the same time after just over 4½ hours in the saddle.
Ricardo Garcia (Kinan Cycling Team) was 2nd, with Hideto Nakane (Asian Racing Team) rounding out the podium.
McLaughlin finished 17 seconds in 16th place, with the field splitting on the ramp up to the finish line.
Feeley was 28th, some 33 seconds down after his breakaway heroics. And O’Mahoney was close behind; in 37th place 43 seconds down on the Italian winner.
McGlinchey was unfortunately one of nine riders who failed to finish; his mechanicals perhaps combined with the additional fatigue due to the delayed travel plans making his trip a disappointing one.
McGlinchey and Feeley before stage 2 got underway yesterday afternoon in the sunshine of Japan.
McLaughlin, who was best place of the Irish on the opening stage 1km TT on Thursday morning before the after stage 2, also yesterday, 21st overall, some 6:51 down on leader and stage 2 winner Nariyuki Masuda (Utsunomiya Blitzen).
Feeley is next – in 30th some 7:07 – with O’Mahoney just behind him in 35th and 10 seconds further back.
During the afternoon stage 2 on Thursday, the hilly terrain meant the gaps were very large after the morning 1km TT.
The 111km stage was won by Nariyuki Masuda (Utsunomiya Blitzen) by 42 seconds from a group of 14 riders.
There was then a massive gap back of 6:41 back to the bunch which contained all the Irish riders except Craig McAuley.
He had a bad crash at the feed zone just after the halfway point and while he remounted and battled all the way to the finish he was outside the time limit and his race was over.
The four-stage race concludes tomorrow, Saturday, with a testing stage of 219km from Kutchan to Sapporo featuring plenty of climbing but not an uphill finish.
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