There may have been no addition to the medal rush for Ireland at the UEC European Road Championships in France today but the manner the U23 riders raced underlined the national team's growing confidence and their advance up the international pecking order.
Supported by a very strong team today, Liam O'Brien and Adam Rafferty went furthest at the front of the race, with O'Brien then striking out on his own from the select group in a bid to take a big result.
The Lidl Trek Future Racing rider from Fermoy, Co Cork, was not daunted by the class in that front group as he has been one of the best riders on the U23 European himself this year.
And in the final of what was a brutal 121km of racing, with 2,516 elevation gain, in Guilherand-Granges, O'Brien attacked the 10-man front group hard, going solo for a period as he tried to gain the kind of gap required to secure a medal.
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O'Brien struck out with about 20km to go, and led the race on his own going out onto the fourth and final passage of the local laps, which included the climbs of San Luca (2.1km at 9.4 per cent) and Monte Albano (1.2km at 5.5 per cent).
But it was one of the big pre-race favourites, Jarno Widar (Belgium), who took it up on the front of the select group after O'Brien, catching the Irishman and passing him on the final climb.
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Widar then went forward, all the way to the line, to take the European crowned, pursued by some of the others in the select group as they fought it out for silver and bronze. O'Brien did his very best to hold his shape to the line after putting all his eggs in one basket with his big attack.
In the end, Widar - who has looked like a sensational prospect for the last couple of seasons - won solo by 14 seconds from Maxime Decomble (France), with Héctor Álvarez (Spain), a Lidl Trek team mate of O'Brien, claiming the bronze, at 46 seconds.
O'Brien placed 15th, at 1:09, though it was the manner of the performance - striking out on his own at the end of such a hard race - that grabbed the eye rather than the result.
Killian O'Brien, who has finally deservedly broken into the U23 national team, was one of three Irish finishers today, placing 59th at 12:45. Rafferty, after his bronze medal in the U23 TT, was in the same group as O'Brien, placing 66th.
Seth Dunwoody, Patrick Casey and Dean Harvey were among the non-finishers today, though each played their part in setting up the team effort for the final, spearheaded by O'Brien.
