Irish riders on the attack as Britain's Gilbank wins Junior Tour opener | Video

William Gilbank of Lee Valley does it in style; taking a brilliant win and keeping at bay three members of the US Hot Tubes hit squad, with Max Fitzgerald best of the Irish in 8th (Photo: Sean Rowe)

The opening stage of the Quanta Capital Junior Tour of Ireland may have gone to one of the British visitors but the Irish riders were on the attack, from the gun, with Cal Tutty of Team Ireland coming away with the climbers' classification jersey.

The biggest winner on the night was William Gilbank (Lee Valley), who proved best in the bunch sprint to win the opening stage and take the first yellow jersey of the race; a tidy return for the 18-year-oldd.

Tutty, appearing once more in the green of Ireland, will trade his national team jersey on tomorrow's stage 2 for the polka dots after he was one of the Irish riders who went up the road very early today, at one point building a gap of more than one minute.

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Also in that move, which went from the start, were: E Tarrant & Sons Skoda Munster duo Eoghan Lattimore and Michael Collins, along with Paul Opie (Lee Valley), Ryu Roberts-Hayamizu (Halesowen Academy 1) and Antoine Bergeron (Ingnite Canada).

Ryu Roberts-Hayamizu of Halesowen Academy leads the breakaway on stage 1 of the Quanta Capital Junior Tour of Ireland (Photo: Sean Rowe)

They made their move shortly after the start of the 63km stage, starting and finishing in Barefield, and by the 25km marker they had an advantage of one minute, though the chase in the peloton began from that point.

Just past the halfway marker, the gap was down to 40 seconds and with just over 15km to go the breakaway had been caught, but not before Tutty had taken the climbers' prime to go into that jersey.

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And though Gabriel Tilli (Ignite Canada) put in a very strong solo effort for a period in the final, he too was caught, paving the way for a bunch sprint won by Gilbank.

The 18-year-old did very well to hold off a trio of US Hot Tubes riders; Enzo Edmonds, Alejandro Che and Caden Budd placing 2nd, 3rd and 4th.

Max Fitzgerald of the national team, fresh from a win in the Netherlands at the weekend, was best-placed Irish rider, in 8th place.

More to come.

Stage 1 | Barefield-Barefield, Co Clare

  1. GILBANK William Lee Valley Youth CC 01:26:09
  2. EDMONDS Enzo Hot Tubes Cycling + 00
  3. CHE Alejandro Hot Tubes 2 + 00
  4. BUDD Caden Hot Tubes Cycling + 00
  5. LUND Orry Team Utmost IOM + 00
  6. OPIE Paul Lee Valley Youth CC + 00
  7. HENDRY Hudson HACC Academy-Mapei + 00
  8. FITZGERALD Max Cycling Ireland + 00
  9. KINRADE James Team Utmost IOM + 00
  10. HOWARD Cian Team Utmost IOM + 00
  11. VILLA RASCON Maximiliano Team California + 00
  12. FREYRE Caden Kelly Benefit Strategies U19 + 00
  13. EVANS Chandler Hot Tubes Cycling + 00
  14. WALTER Luke Boulder Junior Cycling + 00
  15. LUONGO Brendan Hot Tubes Cycling + 00
  16. NOORI James DDP Elite Cycling Team + 00
  17. LAPIERRE David Hot Tubes Cycling + 00
  18. BARR Alexander Kelly Benefit Strategies U19 + 00
  19. SWEETMAN Toby Cycling Ulster + 00
  20. TILLI Gabriel Ignite Junior Cycling + 00

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