Liam Curley and Conn McDunphy of EvoPro Racing have ridden solidly on stage 2 at Ronde de l'Oise (2.2) in France as the main field was shredded during 206km of racing. Though today's stage was almost five hours, the riders covered 49km in the opening hour.
Though the battle for the stage victory into Ribécourt Dreslincourt came down to a bunch sprint, from 60 riders, there were attacks through the stage, with small groups getting clear only to be recaptured.
After about 140km, and with many riders already spat out the back, some of the race vehicles ahead of the bunch went off course and the action had to be halted for a period. When the racing got going again, McDunphy went on the attack.
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He got himself into a strong-looking breakaway group and though it worked to open a gap, it was eventually brought back on a day of relentless speed, and with eight categorised climbs including one within the final 10km.
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In the end, Iúri Leitão (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) took victory from Jason Tesson (St Michel-Auber93) and Valentin Tabellion (Go Sport-Roubaix Lille Métropole). McDunphy was 29th and Curley 34th on the same time as the winner. Of the other Irish EvoPro Racing riders in the race, Cian Keogh was 64th at 4:22, Tom Moriarty 94th at 19:34 and Mitchell McLaughlin 109th at 22:39.
Going into tomorrow's penultimate stage - some 177km from La Croix-Saint-Ouen to Ressons-sur-Matz, with four climbs - stage 1 winner James Fouché (Bolton Equities Black Spoke) continues to lead overall, with McDunphy best placed of the Irish in 27th at 1:47.
