Conn McDunphy has gone very close to taking his second win in the United States after the Irish rider went on the attack on the penultimate stage of Tour of the Gila (2.2) on Saturday.
Guesting for SoCalCycling.com Team, the 26-year-old made his move off the front on the criterium stage 5 in Silver City, New Mexico. He was initially in a small group that also contained US-based Irish rider Cormac Mcgeough (Canel's Zerouno), along with two others.
And though they had a gap of about 15 seconds with four laps remaining of the very short course, McDunphy attacked his breakaway companions with two laps remaining on the circuit, which featured a small climb.
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However, while he still had about 10 seconds going onto the final lap, the sprinters' teams were rapidly closing in on him, with McDunphy swallowed up in sight of the finish line after 65km of racing.
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The fight for the stage win came down to a bunch sprint won by Cade Bickmore (Project Echelon Racing) from McDunphy's team mate, Theodore Obholzer, and Brayan Sánchez (Team Medellín EPM).
That performance by McDunphy followed a very solid ride in Friday's stage 4 TT, of 26km in Tyrone. The former Irish elite TT champion placed 8th on the stage, finishing 1:23 down on Walter Vargas (Team Medellín-EPM), the two-time Colombian national TT champion and four-time Pan American champion against the watch.
More to come.
