Matt Teggart has ended Team Ireland's campaign at Kreiz Breizh Elites in France with a breakaway ride on the final stage. Liam Curley of EvoPro Racing also demonstrated again he copes best with the racing gets very hard as he survived in the reduced peloton again today.
This year's race was a very edition, with the field splitting to pieces on all three road stages as the pace and a course littered with frequent small climbs took their toll.
On today's final stage - some 186.4k from Guingamp to Rostrenen Teggart proved one of the strongest riders on the second categorised climb of the day with just over 100km to go. And when the pace up that climb forced the day's main breakaway, he was in that move.
Alongside the Irishman were: Gari Lagnet (Sojasun Espoir-ACNC), Maxime Jarnet (Go Sport-Roubaix Lille Métropole), Johan Le Bon (Dinan Sport Cycling), Emil Toudal (BHS-PL Beton Bornholm), Timo De Jong (Volkerwessels Cycling Team), Aivaras Mikutis (Team Ampler-Tartu2024) and Adam Lewis (Saint-Piran).
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They quickly gained a gap of just over two minutes, but after about 30km up the road, the breakaway's advantage began to steadily decline as the chase back in the ever-thinning bunch became more organised.
However, while the gap then tumbled to about one minute with approximately 50km remaining, the breakaway was working well and a pattern began of them gaining back time - in five and ten-second chunks - which led to them remaining out front until deep into the finale.
While the breakaway split with about 10km to go and Teggart and a number of others were caught by the remains of the peloton a few kilometres later, all of the breakaway men were eventually caught.
In what was an undulating finale - over a finishing circuit - Bart Lemmen (VolkerWessels) and Pierre Thierry (Arkéa Samsic) forged ahead and took 1st and 2nd on the stage, with Rens Tulner (Metec-Solarwatt p/b Mantel) 3rd at 17 seconds.
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Teggart finished in the first section of the peloton - which split even further in the drag up to the line - and placed 20th at 22 seconds; a strong ride having been clear for so long. Liam Curley (EvoPro Racing) was next of the Irish riders, finishing in seven seconds behind Teggart in 30th place.
Young Tom Moriarty, now starting to show real signs of the benefit of his season with EvoPro Racing, put in a very solid ride today; finishing in 63rd at 4:38, with the 19-year-old now looking like he is starting to find his feet at this level.
Conn McDunphy (EvoPro Racing) and Adam Ward (Team Ireland) were 88th and 89th, in the same small group at 9:49. Cian Keogh (EvoPro Racing) was 103rd at 15:07 while Team Ireland's Kevin McCambridge and Odhran Doogan were non-finishers today, on a day when over 40 riders did not finish. Just 117 of the 173 riders who started the race with the TTT last Thursday finished the race.
The overall victory went to Swedish 26-year-old rider Lucas Eriksson (Riwal Cycling Team) after he took the race lead yesterday with 2nd on the stage. He won by 20 seconds from Danish 25-year-old Jeppe Aaskov Pallesen, who was 3rd yesterday after his ColoQuick team won Thursday's TTT. The winner of stage 2, Jean-Louis Le Ny (WB-Fybolia Morbihan) was 3rd overall at 33 seconds.
Curley was best of the Irish overall; placing 31st at 5:53. The best placing by an Irish rider on a stage was Teggart's 14th on Friday's stage 1; taking 13th in the bunch sprint for 2nd place nine seconds behind solo winner Le Ny.
