Shane Archbold, An Post Chainreaction, celebrates as he crosses the line to win Stage 2 of the 2013 An Post Rás. Longford - Nenagh. (Photo: www.blackumbrellaphotography.com)
Ireland's Peter Hawkins (IG Sigma Sport) has taken over the yellow jersey in the An Pots Rás after he made it into the winning 11-man breakaway today during a frantic 160km stage from Longford to Nenagh in Co Tipperary.
There may have been no categorised climbs on the route today, but the race split to pieces, with a group of over 40 riders – containing yesterday’s winner and yellow jersey today Conor Dunne (Carrick-Iverk Produce) – pulling clear of the rest of the field as the race entered into the business end of the day.
Just passed the 25km to go sign, four men attacked the lead group containing the yellow jersey of Dunne. They quickly built a lead of 25 seconds and in that four-man move were: Shane Archbold (An Post-Chainreaction), Sam Harrison (Team GB), Lars Vierbergen (Holland Koga) and Rasmus Guldhammer (Denmark Blue Water).
Advertisement
With 20km to go they were chased by another seven men to clip off the front of the yellow jersey group. In that seven-man move were: Sam Bennett (An Post-Chainreaction), Peter Hawkins (IG Sigma Sport), Marcin Bialoblocki (UK Youth), Conor McConvey (Synergy Baku), de Ketele (Belgium), Lampier and De Buyst (Belgium).
They quickly caught the four up front, making an 11-man group leading on the road, with 35 seconds on the yellow jersey group of 35-40 riders with 10km remaining.
At 5km remaining, the 11 leaders had 50 seconds on the yellow jersey group, and while they attacked each other from that point, the group arrived at the finish intact, with Archbold winning the stage for the An Post-Chainreaction team with Marcin Bialoblocki (UK Youth) in third and Jasper De Buyst (Belgium) in third.
Hawkins (IG – Sigma Sport) was next in fourth place. And having gone into today’s stage in 7th place overall – 31 seconds down on Dunne – he was best placed overall of today’s winning breakaway and so takes the yellow jersey from Dunne.
“I’m thrilled with the win," said Archbold.
"I was injured at the start of the year and haven’t had too much racing with the way the injury fell but my form has come good. I spent the last three weeks in Holland getting into good shape so it seems to have paid off."
"It was a great team effort today. We missed the vital breakaway yesterday so we were disappointed about that and made sure we had two riders in every breakaway today. Thankfully it worked and we’ll just keep on focusing on stage wins for the rest of the week."
We’ll have much more later, but in the meantime read below how it all unfolded.
How it unfolded
The stage on paper looked liked one that the county riders could live with more comfortably than many others, with no categorised climbs and just one prime at Ballygar. However, often when the stages are flat the big teams go from the gun and there can be carnage; and there was certainly plenty of action today.
It took around 20 minutes of racing before the first proper escape moved clear. It contained 12 riders and worked very strongly.
In that group were: Sam Bennett and Ronan McLaughlin (both An Post- Chainreaction), Tim Mertens (Belgium), Michael Nicolson (Scotland), Jacob Nielsen (Blue Water Cycling), Lars Vierbergen (Koga Cycling Team), Matt Green (Astellas Oncology), Aaron Buggle and Richard Handley (both Rapha Condor JLT), Wouter Sybrandy (IG – Sigma Sport), Christian Varley (NODE4 Giordana), James Lowsley Williams (Britain UK Youth).
A group of six set off in pursuit of them with included yesterday’s second placed rider Mike Northey, the Kiwi riding for NODE4, Daniel Fodor (Blue Water), Damian Shaw (Aquablue), Roger Aiken (Louth), Charles Prendergast (Polygon Sweet Nice) and Eoin Morton (UCD CC).
They were soon caught by the bunch, leaving the 12 out front with a lead of one minute on the bunch. Then another small group tried to get across to the breakaway, with around 50 minutes racing done.
That included Connor McConvey (Synergy Baku), as Sam Bennett won the only prime of the day up front at Ballygar at 45.8km – with Belgian Mertens second and Green of the USA in third.
However, with so many danger men up front, the bunch was determined not to let them clear. And while Damian Shaw (Aquablue) managed to get out of the peloton and bridge to the break alone, the gap had come right down and the breakaway was caught at the 65km mark, with 95km to go into the stage finish in Nenagh.
It was then action stations for the next 1hr+ of racing, as a large breakaway went clear and then a large chase group – containing yellow jersey Conor Dunne caught them, leaving around 40 riders in that front group with a 40 second lead on what was left of the peloton with 30km of the stage remaining.
Those in the group that first went clear were: Remi Pelletier Roy (Canada), Tomas Okrouhlicky (AC Sparta Praha) and Roger Aiken of Louth Prague Charter.
They were then joined by a group containing: Ronan McLaughlin (An Post Chainreaction), Garrett McLeod (Canada), Edward Laverack (Rapha Condor JLT), Joseph Perrett (IG Sigma Sport) and Fraser Duncan (Eurocycles) making a lead escape of eight riders heading into Ballinasloe with 86kms done of the 160km stage.
A number of other riders also bridged across in ones and twos to make 14 riders up front. They included: Rasmus Guldhammer (Denmark Blue Water), Lars Vierbergen (Koga Cycling) and Jacob Rytlewski (Astellas Oncology), Jasper De Buyst and Moreno De Pauw (both of the Belgian national team) and Joshua Hunt (UK Youth).;
At that stage the escape had 30 seconds on the bunch, with fireworks going off back in that peloton as the strong men sensed a really dangerous move was becoming established. That action at the front of the bunch saw 11 chasers set off after the 14 man breakaway which had pulled the gap to the bunch out to one minute.
The chase group included: Sean Downey (An Post Chainreaction), Owain Doull (Great Britain), Andreas Mullar (Arbo Gebrder Weiss), Alexander Schrangl (Arbo Gebrder Weiss), Connor McMconvey (Synergy Baku), Daniel Foder and Mark Pedersen (both Blue Water Cycling), Rodger Shern (Node4 Giordana), Rob Partridge and James Lowsley Williams (both UK Youth) and Sean Lacey (Cork Aquablue).
They joined up with those ahead to leave a 25 man breakaway out front.
At the same time, the bunch behind was at 50 seconds and continuing to split, with 11 riders pulling clear in pursuit of the 25 man leading group.
Among the 11 chasers were: Sam Bennett and Shane Archbold (An Post Chainreaction), Kenny De Ketele (Belgium), Joseph Kelly (Great Britain), Ben Greenwood (Scotland), Benjamin Edmuller and Alexander Schrangel (both of the Austrian Arbo Gebrder Weiss team), Rico Rogers (Azerbaijan Synergy Baku), Martin Hunal and Tomas Holub (both AC Sparta Praha), Jacob Nielsen (Blue Water Cycling), Philipp Becker (Bike Aid – Schwalbe), Roy Eefting and Umberto Atzori ( both Holland Koga), Mike Cuming (Rapha Condor JLT), Dan Barry (Node4 Giordana), Richard Tanguy (UK Youth), yellow jersey Conor Dunne (Tipperary Carrick Iverk Produce) and Finbar Power (Waterford Comeragh).
With 40km to go, that chase group joined the leaders and there were now around 40 riders out front. Their number was swelled further when around four or five more riders bridged across, leaving well over 40 riders leading with a gap of around 40 seconds on the main bunch and just under 30km remaining on the stage.
Related News
Just passed the 25km to go sign, four men attacked the lead group containing the yellow jersey of Dunne. They quickly built a lead of 25 seconds and in that four-man move were: Shane Archbold (An Post-Chainreaction), Sam Harrison (Team GB), Lars Vierbergen (Holland Koga) and Rasmus Guldhammer (Denmark Blue Water).
With 20km to go they were chased by another seven men to clip off the front of the yellow jersey group. In that seven man move were: Sam Bennett (An Post-Chainreaction), Peter Hawkins (IG Sigma Sport), Marcin Bialoblocki (UK Youth), Conor McConvey (Synergy Baku), de Ketele (Belgium), Lampier and De Buyst (Belgium).
They quickly caught the four up front, making an 11-man group leading on the road, with 35 seconds on the yellow jersey group of 35-40 riders with 10km remaining, as a four more men left the yellow jersey group to hunt down the 11-man escape up front.
The four chasers were Ronan McLaughlin (An Post Chainreaction) , Joseph Kelly (Great Britain) , Roy Eefting (Holland Koga) and Joseph Perrett (IG–Sigma Sport).
At 5km remaining, the 11 leaders had 50 seconds on the yellow jersey group, and the four chasers were around 15 seconds ahead of the yellow jersey group – pretty much in no man’s land.
The 11 leaders battled on and by the 3km to go mark they had 40 seconds on the yellow jersey group, with four chasers in between, and started attacking each other from that point.
However, the attacks did little to take the sprint from the legs of Archbold and he romped home for his first Rás stage win in his second ride in the race.
Stage 2, Longford to Nenagh: 160km
1, Shane Archbold (An Post Chainreaction) 3:23:57 secs
2, Marcin Bialoblocki (UK Youth)
3, Jasper De Buyst (Belgium)
4, Peter Hawkins (IG – Sigma Sport)
5, Rasmus Guldhammer (Blue Water Cycling)
6, Connor McConvey (Synergy Baku)
7, Samuel Harrison (Great Britain)
8, Lars Vierbergen (Holland Koga)
9, Steve Lampier (Node4 Giordana) all same time
10, Sam Bennett (An Post-Chainreaction) @ 4 secs
General Classification
1, Peter Hawkins (IG–Sigma Sport) 6:13:13
2, Shane Archbold (An Post Chainreaction) @ 2 secs
3, Marcin Bialoblocki (UK Youth)
4, Steve Lampier (Node4 Giordana)
5, Connor Mcconvey (Synergy Baku)
6, Rasmus Guldhammer (Blue Water Cycling)
7, Jasper De Buyst (Belgium)
8, Samuel Harrison (Great Britain)
9, Lars Vierbergen (Holland Koga) all same time
10, Sam Bennett (An Post-Chainreaction) @6 secs
