Chris McGlinchey won the National eRacing Championships Dublin with a dominant display today, showing no signs of fatigue from his cyclocross championships gold medal of just six days ago.
The 27-year-old Spectra Wiggle p/b Vitus rider went for a long one at the eRacing championships today; attacking 16km out and taking the victory by over one minute on a chasing group.
In what was a demonstration national championship race, towards holding a full title race next year, McGlinchey claimed victory by 1:04 from Nathan Mullan of Dromara CC, with Richard Barry of St Finbarr's 3rd at 1:05.
It was a very close run race for the destination of the silver and bronze medals in the group behind McGlinchey as the climbs and attacks on the New York Astoria Line 8 course failed to split that chasing group.
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In the end, while Mullan took the silver and Barry claimed bronze, Fergus Callaghan (Four Masters CC) and Keane Ryan (Four Masters CC) were just one second further back in 4th and 5th. Another two seconds elapsed before Stuart Millar (Ards CC) took 6th place, some 1:08 behind the winner.
There were then much bigger gaps to the next riders; Conor Verbruggen of Bray Wheelers claiming 7th place in the 10-rider final, at 2:11.
Verbruggen lost ground to the leaders in the first half of the race but for a time it looked like he may get on terms with the six-man leading group as he pegged the gap back to 10 seconds.
However, at that point - with 16km to go - McGlinchey stepped up with a power bazooka and opened fire; pulling clear of the group. His gap was 10 seconds almost instantly before growing a little and then stabilising for a time.
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But any hope that he may be brought back, like some of the earlier attacks, was slowly but surely put to bed. The former World No 1 on Zwift powered his way relentlessly to the finish line and never looked like faltering even a little.
As the race entered the final 5km, and the victory was already in the bag for lone leader McGlinchey, there was plenty of action back in the chasing group.
With just over 4km to go, Ryan looked like he was in difficulty in that chasing group, as did Callaghan; both riders losing some ground on the others before clawing their way back on.
At that point McGlinchey's gap reached one minute and he was consistently powering out well over 400 Watts - indeed over 500 watts at times - on his way to victory, which he secured with clinical efficiency.
Back in the chasing group as the finish line neared, Millar was the first to power up and attack as the line approached. However, Barry closed up to him and Ryan was just behind that duo before a general regrouping inside the final kilometre.
Millar soon went again much closer to the line, with Barry overtaking him only for Mullan get go past them both and hit the line clear in the silver medal position, with Barry taking the bronze.
The final today on the New York Astoria Line 8 course involved a total distance of 34.5km and 423m of elevation. The riders fought it out in-person as they all gathered at O’Reilly Hall on UCD’s Belfield Campus in south Dublin for the race.
All participants used the full Wahoo ecosystem including a KICKR Smart Turbo Trainer, KICKR Climb, KICK Headwind and Gaming laptop.
Men's National eRacing Champs
