Ireland’s Michael O’Loughlin put in a brilliant ride on stage 3 of Tour de l’Avenir. He was 4th on the day and is now up to 6th overall.
Michael O'Loughlin impresses at Tour de l’Avenir
Michael O’Loughlin has gone on the attack on stage 3 at the Tour de l’Avenir and just hung on for 4th place on the stage.
The time gains he made in what was a nail-biting finish also moved him up to 6th overall.
And with the race splitting on the uphill finish in Châteaudu today after 165.8km, Mark Downey and Matt Teggart both nicked seconds and placed 11th and 14th.
O’Loughlin had initially gone clear in a three-man group which would be caught by four chasers.
And while the bunch chipped away at their lead all the way to the line, four of the seven breakaway men survived by a matter of seconds.
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The gap was down to just six seconds with one kilometre to go. But O’Loughlin and the others dug in.
They managed to get across the line just before the front section of the main field sprinted in behind them.
With about 90km left to race O’Loughlin went on the attack with eventual stage winner Damien Touze (France).
Italian national road race champion Edoardo Affini was with them and they immediately pulled out 20 seconds.
Their move followed a prolonged period of aggression in which a large number of small groups went up the road only to be recaptured.
However, once the trio O'Loughlin was part of got a gap, they looked strong. And a small chase group would set of after them.
It featured Mikkel Bjerg (Denmark), Thymen Arensman (Holland), Tiago Antunes (Portugal) and Dimitri Bussard (Switzerland).
Michael O'Loughlin leads the escape. Touze takes the stage. Riou, the stage 2 winner, retained his yellow jersey today.
With about 65km still to race O’Loughlin and the two he was with had 2:40 on the peloton. The four chasers were at 40 seconds.
Soon after, with 110km race, the two groups merged. Norway was now on the front of the peloton chasing hard, later aided by the Australians.
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And while the gap began to come down, the breakaway still had two minutes with 30km to go as the racing hit the finishing circuits.
Having passed through the finish line the second time for the final 18km lap, the breakaway was looking good to survive.
However, as Belgium joined the chase back in the bunch, the gap came down more quickly; to 1:20.
And as they dipped inside the 10km to go marker it was under one minute; just 50 seconds separating peloton and breakaway.
It continued to fall all the way to the line. But the strongest of the escapees – O’Loughlin among them - just managed to hang on.
Three of the break lost their place at the front on the final ramp up to the finish line as the head of the peloton was just seconds behind.
But the other four survived; Touze winning from Affini. Then came a gap of five seconds to Arensman and O’Loughlin; placing 3rd and 4th respectively.
Paddies on Tour: Feeley, Teggart and the full line-up before the start (Photos: Morgane Bezannier)
And just two seconds later stage 1 winner Max Kanter (Germany) won the sprint for 5th place from what remained of the peloton.
While O’Loughlin had ridden very well through the stage, that wasn’t the end of the good news for Ireland.
The main field broke up as the small climb up to the finish caused problems. Kanter led home a group of 10 that pulled slightly clear of the rest of the field.
And in that group was Mark Downey in 11th and Matt Teggart in 14th. Eddie Dunbar was in the next group; in 19th place and just five seconds down on the group of Downey and Teggart.
Daire Feeley finished on the same time as Dunbar, in 34th place. Unfortunately Darragh O’Mahony lost time, coming home in 143rd at 12:51.
The Irish had started the race strongly on Friday; all finishing in the bunch and Downey placing 9th.
On Saturday’s stage 2 – a lumpy 137.6km stage from Drefféac to Châteaubriant – a breakaway finished more than two minutes ahead.
Alan Riou (France) claimed the stage win and took the race lead. Magnus Bak Klaris (Denmark) was 2nd and Hakon Aalrust (Norway) was 3rd.
That trio finished 2:16 ahead of the main field on yesterday's stage. And because the gaps today were modest on the line, the stage 2 breakaway men remain the top three overall.
But O’Loughlin’s ride puts him 6th overall; at 2:09. And the small time gains made today by Downey and Teggart put them 13th and 15th, both at 2:11.
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