By Dara Smith-Naughton
Having come into the Junior Tour of Ireland in great form, and with his confidence high, Liam O'Brien still never expected to win the opening stage; a flat and fast 48km on the Barefield Circuit in Co Clare.
However, the 18-year-old from Co Cork has emerged from the opener with the first stage win for an Irish rider since 2018 and the first yellow jersey of the six-stage race. He told stickybottle he was surprised to take the victory this evening, adding it now took the pressure off for the five stages to come.
O'Brien - a Fermoy CC rider but competing with Team Ireland this week - emerged with victory after breaking clear with Canadian rider Charles Bergeron (Ignite Canada) around the halfway point of the stage.
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While their advantage over the peloton reached a maximum of 40 seconds, it was down to just eight seconds on the line, where O'Brien won a very close two-up sprint. "I just followed a move with about 30km to go and ended up off the front," O'Brien said.
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"Winning the stage was definitely not a realistic goal coming into the first stage. I'm not really a sprinter and I'm just back from Belgium where I raced for five stages so I wasn’t sure I’d be recovered."
However, while somewhat surprised with his success, in a stage better suited to the sprinters, O'Brien was delighted with the outcome, including the yellow jersey.
"It's a great feeling," he said. "It's the first Irish opening stage win in five years so it takes the pressure off for next few days."
Asked if his Team Ireland squad would try and defend the race lead all the way, he replied: "It's definitely too early, anything can happen, we'll take it day-by-day."
Tomorrow's stage 2 takes the riders 103km out to the west coast by Spanish Point, Lahinch, Cliffs of Moher and Corrofin before finishing on the Ennis bypass.
