Irish national road race champion Damien Shaw looks on agonisingly as the break pulls clear of him on the final climb of Friday's third stage of Etoile de Bességes (Picture: Sirotti)
By Brian Canty
Three days into his An Post Chainreaction career, Damien Shaw made the breakaway on the queen stage of the five-day Etoile de Bességes (2.1).
Friday’s hilly 152-kilometre trek starting and finishing in Bességes featured three cat 1 climbs.
But the reigning Irish national road race champion wasn’t fazed by it and managed to escape with 28 riders early on.
All bar six of the 19 teams in the race were represented in the move and they wasted no time in putting the hammer down to open up a gap on the bunch.
The opening exchanges were particularly frantic with the cat 1 climb of the Col de Trelis coming after just 6.4 kilometres. And it was there that the damage was done.
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At 30 kilometres raced, the gap swelled to 1’40” with race leader Bryan Coquard (Direct Energie) safely in the move.
With around 50 kilometres raced, eight riders managed to clip away from this group with three Frenchmen Jerome Coppel (IAM Cycling), Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) and Jerome Cousin (Cofidis, Solutions Credits) all particularly strong.
Those groups would merge once more and Shaw clung on until the third and final climb of the day – the same Col de Trelis as earlier.
Here, the bigger teams like IAM Cycing, FDJ and Lotto-Soudal drove a furious pace, knowing they needed to shed Coquard to have any chance of winning the race outright.
The plan worked as the Frenchman became distance. And under the relentless pace so did Shaw.
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He was around 20 seconds off the back going over that final climb after which a fast run-in to the line followed.
But try as he might he couldn’t get back in and he would eventually drop back to the bunch.
He crossed the line in a group of around 90 riders some 2’48” down on stage winner Sylvain Chavanel (Direct Energie) who managed to take the race leader’s jersey from his teammate Coquard.
The only other Irish rider in the race and Shaw's team mate, Conor McConvey, finished in the same group.
Tony Gallopin (Lotto Soudal) and Arthur Vichot (FDJ) rounded out the stage podium – while that’s also how it looks on GC, with nine seconds separating the top three.
Saturday’s stage takes the riders on a 148-kilometre journey from Tavel to Laudan L’Ardoise and there are three cat 2 climbs along the way.
The race concludes on Sunday.
Stage 3: Bességes-Bességes (152km)
1 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Direct Energie 3:40:06
2 Tony Gallopin (Fra) Lotto Soudal
3 Arthur Vichot (Fra) FDJ
4 Sébastien Delfosse (Bel) Wallonie Bruxelles - Group Protect
5 Jerome Cousin (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits
6 Romain Hardy (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits
7 Fabricio Ferrari Barcelo (Uru) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
8 Flavien Dassonville (Fra) HP-BTP Auber 93
9 Boris Dron (Bel) Wanty - Groupe Gobert
10 Maxime Cam (Fra) Fortuneo - Vital Concept
86 Connor Mc Convey (Irl) An Post - ChainReaction @2:48
107 Damien Shaw (Irl) An Post - ChainReaction same
General Classification
1 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Direct Energie 10:56:53
2 Tony Gallopin (Fra) Lotto Soudal 0:00:02
3 Arthur Vichot (Fra) FDJ 0:00:09
4 Boris Dron (Bel) Wanty - Groupe Gobert 0:00:11
5 Jerome Cousin (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:00:12
6 Angelo Tulik (Fra) Direct Energie 0:00:14
7 Anthony Delaplace (Fra) Fortuneo - Vital Concept
8 Antoine Warnier (Bel) Wallonie Bruxelles - Group Protect
9 Flavien Dassonville (Fra) HP-BTP Auber 93
10 Hubert Dupont (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
43 Connor Mc Convey (Irl) An Post - ChainReaction @3:02
94 Damien Shaw (Irl) An Post - ChainReaction @4:16
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