News Shorts | Irish at Gravel Euro Champs, Dunbar, O'Connor in Italy | Sticky Bottle

*Eddie Dunbar is in some decent form after his Vuelta exit and is now provisionally down to ride at least one more race this season*

Irish rider Marine Lenehen (Dan Morrissey-Primór by Pissei) has won her second European title of the year after claiming the 19-34 years gold medal at European Gravel Championships in Oud-Heverlee, Belgium. Nicolas Roche put in a very solid ride - in a field with big name World Tour riders - in the elite men's race at the Europeans.

For Lenehan, it was the 25-year-old's second European title of the year as she also claimed gold at the European Gran Fondo Championships in June. In August she won silver medal at the Gran Fondo Worlds. It has been a whirlwind season for her as she only took up cycling properly back in February, having previously competed in participation-level triathlon.

Yesterday, after 3hrs 19 minutes of racing, she was almost seven minutes clear of the silver medal winner, Dutch rider Sera Gademan (NWV Groningen). Switzerland's Johansson Maja (Rule58 X Wmngrvl) was 3rd, some nine minutes down on Lenehan.

Now living in Wicklow Town, Lenehan was born to an Irish father and French mother. She lived in Ireland until five or six years of age and then moved to France for two decades. Her mother is from Normandy and the family were mostly based there, with Lenehan moving back to Ireland last November. We'll have an interview with her later today.

Ireland had only one competitor in the male or female pro races at the Europeans - Nicolas Roche. Now retired from World Tour road racing for two seasons, Roche has continued to race gravel with his own team, NR GRVL.

From a start list of 83 riders, many of them current top World Tour riders, Roche put up a very solid performance to place 28th. He was 13:33 down on winner - and first European gravel champion - Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek). The Belgian rider finished 1:21 up on a three-man group, with Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep) winning that sprint for silver.

German Paul Voß, a former Bora-Argon 18 rider, took the bronze just ahead of Gianni Vermeersch, the Alpecin-Deceuninck man who won the gravel Worlds last year and was competing in the rainbow jersey.

Related News

Lara Gillespie attacks Dolomite stage as Giro hits high mountains

Video - Italy's hero Balsamo mobbed mid-stage during Giro TT

Meanwhile, in Italy, Irish U23 rider Ronan O'Connor has continued his late season good form with Team Colpack Ballan CSB. On Saturday he narrowly missed out on victory in the Cronoscalata Ust Luserna SG hill climb, on a 7.5km course averaging 7 per cent gradient.

He finished the race less than a second behind winner Simone Lucca (SoLMe-Olmo). Though winner, Lucca, and runner-up, O'Connor, were officially credited with the same time, the Irish rider had to settle for 2nd place.

Last Tuesday he also put up a very good performance in Ruota d'Oro, a UCI-ranked U23 race of 170km with 2,000m of climbing. He was up the road in a small breakaway in the last 30km on hilly terrain, but they were caught with 10km to go. O'Connor eventually finished in 22nd place. He was in a 16-rider group just seconds behind a winning breakaway of six; the race won by Gil Gelders (Soudal QuickStep Development).

O'Connor will ride his last race of the season tomorrow, an Italian one-day in San Daniele in Fruili, alongside fellow Irish riders Archie Ryan (Jumbo Visma Development) and Darren Rafferty (Hagens Berman Axeon).

In Croatia, Eddie Dunbar (Team Jayco AlUla) finished CRO Race 12th overall. Dunbar was hoping stage 4, which was the hilliest of the race, would be more selective, though the field failed to split to any significant extent.

The Irish rider was as high as 9th overall, after that fourth stage, and finished 12th overall in the final general classification when the race ended on Sunday. He was among a group of six riders all equal on time in the final GC, some 17 seconds down on overall winner Orluis Aular (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA). Dunbar is provisionally down to ride Japan Cup Cycle Road Race (1.Pro) on October 15th.