Irish riders Eddie Dunbar and Daire Feeley receive huge local support at Rathcormac as stage 6 of the Rás made its way from Clonakilty to Dungarvan (Photo: Morgan Treacy)
By Brian Canty
Aaron Gate opened the An Post Chain Reaction team account for 2016 on day six of the Rás today on an afternoon that saw Clemens Fankheuser retain the race leader's yellow jersey for the third day in-a-row.
Twice a stage winner from last year, Kiwi rider Gate edged Nicolai Brochner (Riwal Platform) and Matt Holmes (Madison Genesis) at the end of the 159-kilometre stage from Clonakilty to Dungarvan.
Chris McGlinchey of the Irish national team was best of the domestic riders as he finished eighth in the same time while Damien Shaw (An Post Chain Reaction) was also in that front group who contested the stage.
Advertisement
Shaw is still third overall at two seconds while Eddie Dunbar is still right up there as well on general classification.
The young Corkman had a day to remember as he spent most of the afternoon out front in a three-man break alongside former Irish junior international Daire Feeley (iTap) and Dylan kennett (New Zealand national team).
They pulled out a maximum advantage of 4'30" at one point but were gradually reeled in as they came inside 50 kilometres to go.
After their recapture, the sparks really kicked off as a battle royal ensued but Fankheuser kept his cool and helped reel in a late break that featured three riders; Josh Edmondson (NFTO), James Gullen (Pedal heaven) as well as Sunday’s stage winner Taco van der Hoorn (Join-S De Rijke).
How it unfolded
Today’s stage took the riders on a 159-kilometre journey from Clonakilty to Dungarvan and for the sixth consecutive day the riders were bathed in warm sunshine heading off.
Ahead of them today were three categorised climbs after 35, 94 and 127 kilometres, respectively.
With the general classification so tightly congested and 19 riders within a minute of race leader Clemens Fankheuser (Austria Tirol Cycling) a day of huge aggression was expected.
Aaron Gate of An Post ChainReaction, comes home to win stage 6 of The An Post Rás from Clonakilty to Dungarvan (Photo: Ryan Byrne – Inpho)
The yellow jersey told stickybottle last night that he was really feeling the pressure after two days defending his lead and he only managed to cling to the lead yesterday by the skin of his teeth.
Several riders saw today as an ideal time to attack the 2014 winner and no sooner was the flag dropped before an enormous send-off in Clonakilty that the attacks came.
Eddie Dunbar was one of those riders right up there in contention for yellow and having come so close on Tuesday’s stage to Dingle he was keen to try once again and he was among the first riders to go clear today.
He knew he needed 14 seconds to take the jersey but wasn’t prepared to wait until later in the day and instead he scorched clear on his own early on.
The roads were hard and twisty and perfect for a break to go away and with that, Daire Feeley (iTap) and Dylan Kennett (New Zealand) took off after Dunbar who wasn’t hanging around.
The latter two hung out there a while before eventually making the juncture and Dunbar will have been mightily glad to see them tag onto his back wheel.
Dunbar and Feeley both rode for the irish national team at the world road race championships in Ponferrada two years ago and know each other well while Kennett was up chasing yellow earlier in the week.
He’s the current New Zealand U23 time-trial silver medallist so clearly, possesses some power beneath the bonnet.
Oliver Maxwell (Neon Velo) tried to jump across – as did Mark Dowling (ASEA-Wheelworx).
Related News
Maxwell never managed to make it and was reabsorbed but Dowling persisted a while longer.
Kennett and Feeley made the juncture to Dunbar after 30 kilometres and by that point they were almost three minutes clear of a bunch that was already losing men at a rate of knots.
The Men of the Rás leave Clonakilty under the watchful eye of Michael Collins (Photo: Morgan Treacy - Inpho)
The first climb of the day was the Windy Gap and the three leaders crested that together before swooping down into Coachford with a four-minute gap on the field and a two-minute lead on Dowling who still clung doggedly to the task of trying to bridge.
With a third of the race complete the gap had went out to 4’30” as Dowling decided to take refuge back in the bunch and save his powder until later.
On the front of the bunch it was the seemingly tireless Tirol patrolling things, albeit with the generous help of Madison Genesis who were trying to keep Matt Holmes right in contention.
At 60 kilometres the margin remained over the four-minute and roared on by huge crowds that came out to support local man Dunbar, the young Corkman drove a really strong pace, though Feeley and Kennett really contributed also.
It remained like that for the next 30 kilometres with the gap holding around four minutes.
The next KOH at Rathcormac (95 kilometres) was taken by Dunbar followed by Feeley and Kennett with Niko Holler (Bike Aid) extending his lead in that classification by taking fourth.
The final 50 kilometres was real edge-of-the-seat stuff as the gap was not coming down and the leading trio absolutely emptied themselves to maintain their advantage.
Kennett was first to buckle, however and he got dropped, though he was soon picked up by the bunch.
The next big move saw nine riders go off in pursuit of the two up front.
In there were Aaron Gate (An Post Chain Reaction), Clemens Fankhauser (Austria Tirol), Jai Hindley (Australia), Josh Edmondson (NFTO), Matt Holmes (Madison Genesis), James Gullen (Pedal Heaven), Elliott Porter (Neon Velo), Troels Ronning Vinther (Riwal Platform) and Regan Gough (New Zealand) broke clear and went after Dunbar and Feeley.
That group really didn’t hang around and halved the deficit within 10 kilometres and with 40 kilometres to go they had the two Irish riders up front within 1’30”.
Meanwhile, Dexter Gardias of Pedal Heaven managed to make his way across to Dunbar and Feeley and he immediately made the thing dangerous as he started the day 12th at 19 seconds.
But no sooner had he bridged were the two leaders caught with 30k to go and it set things up for a dramatic final as the leading bunch numbered fewer than 40.
Holler extended his lead in the climbers’ classification by taking the final KOH but with Shaw, Holmes and Fankheuser up there it was clear that the real race was just about to begin.
And going clear as they left Lismore were three big GC men; the aforementioned Edmondson and Gullen as well as Sunday’s stage winner Taco van der Hoorn (Join-S De Rijke).
That trio worked well and immediately had 20 seconds and with 15k to go they had 30 seconds.
Inside the 10k to-go sign they’d engineered another 10 seconds to lead by 40 but as the kilometres ticked down, so too did their lead.
Van der Hoorn only needed six seconds to take yellow, Gullen needed eight and Edmondson needed 17 so it really was an eyeballs out effort.
Inside three kilometres to go the margin was down to 15 seconds and such was the frantic pace set by the chasing bunch that it was all together inside the final kilometre.
Fankheuser never contested the sprint but he did enough to ensure he keeps yellow for another day.
Provisional Results, after stage 6
Topics
