Eli Husted of Hot Tubes has take the Junior Tour of Ireland yellow jersey after claiming stage 1 of the race from a two-man breakaway into Barefield, Co Clare (Photo: Toby Watson)
American
rider Eli Husted has taken the opening stage of the Junior Tour of Ireland for
the visiting Hot Tubes team.
He
forged clear on this evening’s 48km stage 1 into Barefield with compatriot Seth
Callahan of the Lux Sideshow team.
And
at the finish it was Husted, from Austin, Texas, who prevailed in the two-up
gallop over Callahan, from Social Circle in Georgia.
Though the runner-up was 4th in the US criterium championships last year and is a noted sprinter, stage winner Husted has also already had an impact nationally in the United States.
Husted adds the stage win in Co Clare today and his Junior Tour yellow jersey to the gold medal and stars and stripes jersey he claimed when winning the American junior road race championships last year.
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So far this season he has already had a very good run and having just turned 17 years old he has been picking off the wins.
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He has won the Lago Vista Road Race, the Corsicana
Criterium, the Sunshine Grand Prix Circuit Race and the Houston Grand
Criterium.
Considering the pedigree of Husted and Callahan, it is perhaps no surprise that once they got together this evening off the front and gained a gap they would likely hold on.
When
it became clear in the closing kilometres the duo up front were indeed strong
enough to hold off the bunch, a strong group attacked after them.
In
that chasing group was Ireland’s Kevin McCambridge, riding this week on the
national team.
For company Irish TT champion McCambridge had Pedro Clem (Green Jersey) and Edinburgh’s Kyle Thomas. When they went clear in the last 3km the leaders still had about 20 seconds.
However, the three chasers did not catch the two up front and the trio were chased hard by the speeding peloton and caught.
On
the line Husted and Callahan had only seven seconds to spare over the next men
home.
However,
it was enough to decide the stage win and the destination of the first yellow
jersey of the race.
Nick
Carter of Hot Tubes proved best of the rest to take 3rd place from Colby
Simmons of Lux Sideshow.
That meant it was a clean sweep of the top four positions by American riders in this year’s Junior Tour of Ireland opening stage.
More to come.
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