Jamie Meehan (CC Étupes) has climbing his way into the top 15 overall at Ronde de l'Isard (2.2U), which is one of the most prestigious U23 stage races in the world.
The Donegal rider, and national U23 road race champion, out in a very good shift on the HC Plateau-de-Beille finish today, a climb of 16km at 7.7 per cent.
Meehan has been building his general classification performance over the last four stages having proven just last weekend he was coming into great form when he took 2nd in a round of the French Cup, the highest level of elite racing in France.
As with some of the other big stages on the race to date, the gaps today were significant, with Dutch 22-year-old Darren van Bekkum of Visma-Lease a Bike Development taking a brilliant win, by 51 seconds over his nearest rival.
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Meehan was in 16th place, of the 100-rider field, and finished alone some 4:07 down on the stage winner. While the gap was big, the final climb broke the field to pieces, with all but a handful of riders in the first 30 finishing alone, such was the extent of the damage on the final climb.
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Meehan was 14th on the opening stage on Wednesday, some 146.1km from L'Isle-en-Dodon to Trie-sur-Baïse on a day when the main bunch was down to just 50 riders, with very big gaps after that. On Thursday's very hilly 128km stage 2, from Bagnères-de-Bigorre to Bagnères-de-Luchon, Meehan finished in 21st, in a small group at 7:26.
Yesterday's stage 3 saw the riders tackle 153km from Bagnères-de-Luchon to Saverdun, with Meehan finishing, in 37th place, in a 40-rider bunch just over 30 seconds behind the stage winner.
Meehan is now 15th overall, some 9:48 down on today's stage winner, and new yellow jersey, Van Bekkum with just one stage remaining tomorrow; 134.4km from Pamiers to Saint-Girons.
Darren VAN BEKKUM (Team Visma | Lease a Bike Development) remporte la 4ème étape à l’arrivée au sommet au Plateau de Beille ! ??♂️ pic.twitter.com/A9yVEfnjHY
— Ronde de l'Isard (@RondeIsard) May 4, 2024
