Not to be outdone by Ben Healy and Leo Doyle, who scored wins in Slovenia and Poland today, former Irish TT champion Conn McDunphy has taken the biggest road race victory of his career at Tour de Beauce in Canada.
The Team Skyline rider, like Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) and Doyle (XSpeed United Continental), saved the best 'til last and struck out for a solo victory on the final stage into Saint-Georges today in the UCI-ranked 2.2 race.
The Irish rider adds the stage win today to a brilliant stage victory into Sneem, Co Kerry, on the second day of Rás Tailteann last month, when he ended the race 3rd overall.
McDunphy, who had already been very aggressive in the race before today's action in Canada, won the stage by four seconds from Canadian Jérôme Gauthier (Team Ecoflo Chronos). He led home a seven-man chasing group from compatriot Sasha Renaud-Tremblay (TaG Cycling).
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McDunphy's Irish team mate, Cian Keogh, was also in action today; finished in 61st place at 11:14 on a day when the field was stretched out by 18 minutes and the number of non-finishers was very high.
The field split to pieces on the 122.4km stage, which started and finished in Saint-Georges, and involved 11 laps of a circuit with a 1.3km climb, averaging six per cent.
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The time gains made by McDunphy today, as well as the 10-second bonus for winning the stage, moved him up from 17th to 12th in the final general classification. He finished some 1:58 down on overall winner Josh Burnett, a Kiwi riding for (MitoQ-NZ Cycling Project).
Burnett took the race lead on the queen stage on Friday, which finished atop the cat 1 Mont Mégantic, a 5.4km ascent averaging 9.5 per cent and with the opening 2km just over 11 per cent.
More to come.
L’homme seul en tête pic.twitter.com/9xwq4rKIe2
— Tour de Beauce (@TourDeBeauce) June 16, 2024
