Conor Dunne leads the breakaway up the cobbled ascent of Libby Hill in the elite men's race at the World Road Championships in Richmond (Photo: Sean Rowe)
They may have lined up as a two-man Irish team against the full squads of the most powerful cycling nations in the world, but Conor Dunne and Sam Bennett both put in very strong rides at the World Championships on Sunday.
Contesting a fantastic elite race won by a very popular new champion in Peter Sagan (Slovakia), Bennett showed his vastly improved stamina in staying with the biggest guns until close to the finish.
And Dunne went clear very early in the main breakaway of the day, proving strong right until the moment they were reeled in with just under 100km remaining in the 260km contest.
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Going from the start, Dunne pulled broke away in an eight-man move that also included Ben King (USA), Sergei Tvetcov (Romania), Carlos Alzate (Colombia), Andriy Khripta (Ukraine), Jesse Sergent (New Zealand), Ivan Stevic (Serbia), and Park Sung Baek (Korea).
With 14 laps of what proved to be a testing 15km course to be completed once the riders reached the circuit, the Dutch were active on the front of the peloton ensuring the gap to the escape did not get too big.
Unusually for a World Championships, the breakaway succeeded in pulling out no more than four minutes of an advantage.
And with a number of attacks on the seventh loop, the gap between breakaway and bunch was down to 30 seconds as the escape crossed the finish line.
Sam Bennett finishes in a small group just 40 seconds down; a very good ride by the Carrick-on-Suir man (Photo: Sean Rowe)
With the field behind splitting up - thanks mainly to some crashes on the inclines - and then regrouping, the gap grew out a little again but from that point the breakaway was clearly doomed.
Dunne pressed on very hard up the climbs of Libby Hill and 23rd Street and clearly put everyone else in the escape under pressure.
But by the time the racing came around to the testing last third of the course on the next lap the escapees were caught, with six circuits remaining.
Dunne held his place for a long time in the first section of the bunch that was first up to the escapees.
Bennett looked like he was quite far back after being present in the first half of the field – including on the front – for all of the race to that point.
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But when there was another regrouping, Bennett was one of the beneficiaries and was back in the now much depleted peloton.
And that was where he would staying until last time up the climbs when Zdenek Stybar (Czech Republic) and John Degenkolb (Germany) had a go on Libby Hill just after a two-man escape containing Tyler Farrar (USA) and Kanstantsin Siutsou (Belarus) had been caught.
Peter Sagan takes victory as the group charges in just behind, with Australian Michael Matthews winning the sprint for silver (Photo: Sean Rowe)
Up the 23rd Street climb for the last time, the steepest part of the course, it was Sagan who let rip.
He pulled out a gap on Belgium’s Greg Van Avermaet and Niki Terpstra (Netherlands).
It looked like he may be caught, but he pressed on and whipped down the descent; his bike handling skills absolutely vital in maintaining the gap just about large enough for the two chasers to question themselves.
And when that gap grew a little, the two chasers began looking at each other and the race for the title was over.
Sagan emptied himself up the last climb and the drag to the finish to take gold just ahead of a fast-finishing front group only three seconds back.
In the sprint to the line from that group, Michael Matthews (Australia) took silver from bronze medal winner Ramunas Navardauskas of Lithuania.
Bennett was 40th, just 40 seconds behind the winner; a fantastic result for a man who fended for himself the whole race and had said he needed to improve his strength generally as a rider this year.
Dunne was listed as a non-finisher but put in the ride of his life to stay out front for as long as he did.
More later.
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