McDunphy gets up the road racing against big guns at Volta Valenciana | Video

Conn McDunphy, above, and compatriot Cian Keogh have been in against the biggest teams in the sport over the past week at Volta Comunitat Valenciana (Photo: Ron Short)

Conn McDunphy (APS Pro Cycling by Team Cadence Cyclery) has spent much of the final stage of Volta Comunitat Valenciana (2.Pro) up the road in the breakaway, making his initial move with Mathias Norsgaard (Lidl-Trek).

McDunphy and compatriot, and team mate, Cian Keogh were in in against the big guns over the last five days. World and Olympic champion, Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe), continued his really strong start to the season with overall victory, and claiming two stages along the way.

That brought the Belgian's 2026 win tally to six, even though the season has just started. However, McDunphy wasn't over awed by the presence of the big names in the race and on the final stage today he got up the road in a breakaway after about 7km.

On a long drag just after the finish, and with lots of competition to get clear for the day, McDunphy and Norsgaard got clear, combining to ensure their place in the large breakaway, which numbered about 20 riders at one point.

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Once in the move, McDunphy remained there up and over the cat 3 climb, crested after 25km and then raced into the base of the cat 1, which topped out 50km into the 94.7km stage from Bétera to Valencia.

However, when the breakaway began to split on that climb, McDunphy was among those to be distanced. The Irishman was caught by the remains of the peloton, led by Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, over the top of the climb and managed to stay in that group for most of the stage.

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He was only tailed off as they approached the finish as some of the early breakaway men surived out front to take the top six places on the stage, just two seconds clear of the yellow jersey group.

Raúl García Pierna (Movistar Team) won the six-man sprint for victory from Emil Herzog (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) and 19-year-old Jasper Schoofs (Soudal QuickStep).

After his breakaway efforts, McDunphy finished in 64th, some 1:06 down on the winner. Keogh placed 109th, 14:36 down, with the two Irishman completing the first 2.Pro stage race of their careers with their new US-registered team.

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