Liam O'Brien (Team Ireland) came into the Junior Tour of Ireland after a big performance in Belgium over the weekend and the Cork teenager has pulled another big shift out of the bag this evening into Barefield, Co Clare.
He has taken victory on the opening stage of the Junior Tour - the first by an Irish rider since Shay Donley in 2018 - and also now holds the yellow jersey; a huge result for him and Team Ireland.
Indeed, Liam O'Brien's victory represents a big turn around on events this time last year for the Irish team, when two of its riders - Quillan Donnelly and Oisin Ferrity - crashed on the first stage of the race and were unable to continue after suffering broken bones.
The above-mentioned Oisin Ferrity recorded an impressive 3rd place, one year on from his untimely exit from the Tour, as he led the main bunch home just seconds after teammate Liam O'Brien and Charles Bergeron.
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This evening on stage 1 of Ireland's only stage race for juniors, O'Brien attacked in a two-man move with Charles Bergeron (Ignite Canada) a long way out. And though the peloton hunted down the duo all the way to the line - and almost cancelled out their move - they made it all the way and O'Brien took the two-up sprint for victory.
That gallop, with the stakes high as a victory and the yellow jersey was on the line, was a very close run thing, though O'Brien just edged out his Canadian rival.
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With just 48km to race this evening, the stage was always going to be a fast and furious affair. And while there were plenty of attacks in the opening half of the stage, it wasn't until almost exactly at the halfway point that the first attack stuck.
Initially, three riders were in that group with 24km to go before Ireland's O'Brien and Canada's Bergeron - 2nd in the TT and 4th in the road race at the recent Canadian road championships - pushed on as a duo. They quickly opened a gap of about 30 seconds, though the speed in the peloton behind ensured they were not allowed to ride off into the sunset with a huge advantage.
The gap they pulled out over the bunched reached a maximum of 40 seconds, but it soon began to reduce; just 23 seconds with 15km to go and down to 15 seconds with 10km remaining. And while that final 10km remained a game of seconds between bunch and breakaway, O'Brien and Bergeron somehow hung on to fight for the victory.
Not since Shay Donley (Team Ireland) won the opening road stage of the race back in 2018 has an Irish rider scored a stage victory and O'Brien's win, along with Ferrity's podium finish, will prove huge boosts for the home challenge and for the race itself. He is a very strong campaigner and on Sunday finished 4th overall at the Sint Martinusprijs Kontich UCI-ranked stage race in Belgium, after placing 4th in the stage 3 TT.
More to come.
