Marcus Christie best of An Post's Irish riders in final TT stage in France

Marcus Christie and his young Irish team mates will take plenty of encouragement from his ride in France.

Marcus Christie and his An Post-Chainreaction team mates enjoyed what was a low key concluding stage to the Etoile de Bessèges pro stage race in France today, Sunday.

The Irish U23 international finished 6^th of the winning breakaway on stage 1 on Wednesday and came home in the main bunch on Thursday when others lost time.

The former Foyle CC rider then found himself in 5^th place overall after the opening two stages and also taking over the leader’s jersey in the U23 classification.

Friday’s stage 3 was over more undulating terrain, with a very tough climb to be negotiated on three passages of a large circuit. Christie lost time, and with it his classification jersey; his efforts to retain it not helped by a puncture at the foot of a climb and a solo chase back on.

That ended any hope of him holding his high overall placing until today’s 11km concluding TT, when his time trialling prowess may have seen him hold a good position on the final general classification.

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In today’s test at Alés he was best of the Irish quartet in the race, coming home in 58^th place some 1:15 down on stage and overall winner Tobias Ludvigsson, a Swede riding for Giant-Shimano.

However, while Christie had a tougher time in the latter stages of the race than in the first couple of days, his bagging of a 6^th place on a stage, making a winning breakaway and holding a classification leader's jersey is a fantastic start to his tenure with An Post-Chainreaction.

It augurs very well for him for the rest of the season and also suggests that the other Irish trio in the line-up this week – Conor Dunne, Ryan Mullen and Jack Wilson – will come out of the race buoyed by Christie’s ride in his first pro race and its impact on team morale.

February 5^th to 9^th: Etoile de Bessèges (UCI 2.1)

February 9^th, Stage 5: Alés, 11km TT

Final General Classification