Patrick Casey, the Irish junior riding for Team GRENKE-Auto Eder, is leading the prestigious UCI Junior Nations Cup race, Eroica Juniores, after the first two stages of four.
The 18-year-old now tops a 160-rider field from all over the world and featuring national teams from the Netherlands, Spain, Slovenia, Hungary, Italy, France, Germany, Norway, Poland and the United States, among others.
The junior feeder team of World Tour squad Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale is also in the event and its riders are stacked up behind Casey in 2nd, 3rd and 4th after the open two stages of four.
Today Casey's campaign in the five-stage race could not have got off to a better start when his team - which is part of the Bora-hansgrohe set-up - won the opening 22,5km TTT into Castiglione della Pescaia on the north west coast of Italy.
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It put 31 seconds into runners-up Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale U19 Team, with the Italian and French national teams taking 3rd and 4th at 34 and 39 seconds respectively. Casey's Italian team mate, Lorenzo Finn, got to wear the race leader's jersey going into this afternoon's road stage.
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And during that stage - some 68.3km starting and finishing in Castiglione della Pescaia - the field split, with Casey making the 10-man front group vying for the stage win some 10 seconds up on the nearest chasers.
The Irish rider was the best -placed in the overall in the front move, with none of his team mates present. That meant his 6th place on the stage - in the same time as winner Senna Remijn (Netherlands) - saw him take the race leader's jersey; an incredible achievement.
Casey's fellow Irish junior, Killian O'Brien, is also in the race competing for his Czech squad, International Veleka Team. They lost 4:50 in today's TTT while O'Brien placed 63rd in the afternoon stage, finishing in a group at 2:03.
The race continues tomorrow with a hilly stage 3, of some 110km from Cinigiano to Siena. On Saturday, the juniors will race 102km from Siena to Montevarchi, with the 14km cat 1 climb of the Montevarchi crested 15km from the finish, virtually all of which will be descending.
On Sunday the race concludes with the fifth stage, with is 103km from Siena to Chiusdino and concludes on a 5.6km cat 2 climbing, averaging just over four per cent gradient.
