Michael O'Loughlin shows his delight in taking victory on stage 5 of the Junior Tour of Ireland just ahead of race leader and fellow national team rider Eddie Dunbar (Photo: Stephen McMahon - Sportsfile)
By Brian Canty
Ireland’s Eddie Dunbar has all but sealed victory in the Stena Ireland International Junior Tour for the second year in succession. He finished runner-up to his teammate Michael O’Loughlin on today’s penultimate stage to cement their dominance on the race.
Barring a disaster in tomorrow’s final stage, a circuit race around Ennis, Dunbar will cross the finish line in the yellow jersey he claimed after Wednesday’s opening road stage.
It was fitting that today it was the turn of one of his teammates to claim stage honours; Michael O’Loughlin taking his second stage having worked very hard for his team mate in recent days.
Advertisement
The duo were 49 seconds ahead of next-placed Craig McAuley (NRPT) today with Dylan O’Brien in fourth on the same time.
O’Loughlin, who will most likely finish in the white jersey as best first year junior, has been very impressive all week.
He blitzed the field to claim the first yellow jersey of the race last Tuesday when he won the time-trial by 10 seconds. And since Dunbar took the lead from him a day later, O’Loughlin has been right by his side.
That sentiment goes for the whole Irish team, where Stephen Shanahan and Daire Feeley both having sacrificed their own chances of a good result to ensure the yellow jersey stays with the team.
Today’s stage was the last chance for anyone with designs on taking the jersey from Dunbar to do so and it was no surprise to see a frantic start to the day.
With three categorised climbs – finishing on the cat one Gallows Hill – the Irish team had to be vigilant as groups tried to go up the road.
Castlebar CC man Cale Coen was first to wriggle free and the runner-up from Tuesday’s TT was soon joined by Michael Hernandez of the Hot Tubes team as they raced towards Killaneana after 30km.
They had a minute on the bunch at one stage; the peloton behind them all staying together for the first categorised climb of the day, the cat 2 Sallybank after 68km.
Related News
But then the efforts of the week began to take their toll as riders quickly became distanced, not helped by the relentless attacks of the Nicolas Roche Performance Team. They were clearly intent on getting Craig McAuley and Caimin Muldoon up the road and into a higher placing on GC.
The two leaders were soon back in the bunch and by the time the peloton started the next climb, the cat 2 climb of Windy Gap, the front group numbered no more than 30 riders.
Here, the Irish team screamed up the climb with Hot Tubes also trying to dictate things in a bid to get yesterday’s stage winner Jack Maddux away.
But it was Maddux’s teammate Hernandez who got away instead, and with him went the very strong Simon Tuomey (Iverk Produce Carrick Wheelers) who has really ridden this week.
He would finish the day sixth overall despite being virtual second at one stage.
That duo pulled out a 40-second gap but were soon joined by five more from behind as the race turned for home. They were Maddux, Tuomey, Dylan O’Brien (Munster Sensa), O’Loughlin, Dunbar, Matt Teggart and McAuley (both NRPT).
Not happy with that, Dunbar and O’Loughlin took flight and simply left everybody in their wake.
They worked superbly together all the way to the finish where it was O'Loughlin who took his second win of the week.
Dunbar, meanwhile, is on the verge of making Junior Tour history as the first rider ever to retain the title in the races 38 year history.
Tomorrow’s last leg is an 80-kilometre circuit race featuring eight laps of 10kilometres passing through Ennis and finishing around 1pm on the Kiladysert Road.
- Efforts to contact Michael O'Loughlin and Eddie Dunbar for interview this week have not been successful.
Topics
