McDunphy goes close after crash while leading solo in Turkey

Conn McDunphy out front on his own, after going long in Turkey; the dirt on his right shoulder telling the story of his day

Conn McDunphy has collected some very impressive wins in UCI-ranked races in recent years and the Irish rider went very close today to taking his first victory of new squad APS Pro Cycling by Team Cadence Cyclery. But for a crash while leading the race, he looked like he had the win, and race leader's jersey, in the bag at the Tour of Antalya (2.2).

The 29-year-old made the breakaway and on the final climb of the day, with 35km of the 145km stage remaining, McDunphy took matters into his own hands and let rip with a big solo dig.

However, not long after opening a gap on those he was with, and looking set to ride away, the Irish rider crashed on the descent, resulting in much of the gap he had fought for vanishing immediately.

Though he got up and battled on, he was later caught by three chasers, attacking them and going solo again, only to be recaptured by the peloton with 3km to go.

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Both McDunphy and his Irish team mate, Cian Keogh, finished in the bunch today on the same time as Belarussian Aliaksei Shnyrko (Li Ning Star), who claimed victory in a bunch gallop.

However, though McDunphy did not get the stage win and yellow jersey he was hoping for, he still picked up some time bonuses along the way. And that puts him in 5th overall, some seven seconds down on stage winner Shnyrko.

The four-stage race continues tomorrow with a relatively flat 136km stage to Kadriye before Saturday's unusual 85.8km stage 3, the final 40km of which is almost all uphill - including a HC climb of 12.9km averaging 8.2 per cent gradient.