The Irish national junior team has rounded out its effort the Peace Race in Czechia with a strong effort on the final stage today, when they tried to set up Seth Dunwoody for a second stage victory.
And while it wasn't to be for the men in green, with Dunwoody having to be content with 12th place on the day, the team returns home with a race UCI Nations Cup win in the bag for Ireland.
Under the guidance of Martyn Irvine the riders competed as a very strong unit over the last four days of racing; working towards team goals and coming away with an all-important victory, not to mention invaluable experience.
Aside from Dunwoody's brilliant bunch sprint win on stage 2b, he also took 7th in the stage 2a TT while Patrick Casey, already with a string of top results in Europe this season, was best-placed finisher for the national team overall.
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Casey claimed 14th in the final general classification, finishing 1:39 down on overall winner, and world junior road race champion, Albert Philipsen of Denmark. The other Irish riders finished as follows: David Gaffney 38th at 2:16, Joseph Mullen 42nd at 2:20, Cal Tutty 54th at 3:00 and Dunwoody 82nd at 20:56.
Mullen and Casey put in strong performances on yesterday's hilly stage, both finishing just two seconds down on winner Anton Louw Larsen (Denmark), in 34th and 41st respectively Those were good performances on a day when the gaps were significant.
Tutty and Gaffney were not too much further back on the 133.9km stage from Teplice to Olbernhau; placing 61st and 68th, just 40 seconds back.
On today's final stage - 98.3km starting and finishing in Terezín - all of the Irish riders finished in the bunch as they worked to try and set up Dunwoody for the victory. And though he would have wanted more than 12th, he comes away from this race with another big international win.
