O’Loughlin and O’Mahony best of Ireland team in Czech Republic | Sticky Bottle

Michael O'Loughlin is in action with the Irish U23 team at the Nations Cup in the Czech Republic; in Course de la Paix Grand Prix Priessnitz Spa

Michael O’Loughlin and Darragh O’Mahony were best of the Irish on the opening stage of the latest installment of the U23 Nations Cup today.

They both finished nine seconds down in the prologue TT at Course
de la Paix Grand Prix Priessnitz Spa in Krnov in the Czech Republic.

The stage was won by Dutch rider Nils Eekhoff, who has competes for Sunweb’s development team and rode for its WorldTour outfit for the latter part of last season.

The 21-year-old whipped around the 2km course in a time of
2:11 and an average speed of 54.962km per hour.

He put two seconds into runner-up Ethan Vernon of Team GB, with Nicolas Dalla Valle; a Tirol KTM rider competing with Italy.

Team photo time in the Czech Republic: Left to right Michael O'Loughlin, Adam Stenson, Jake Gray, Dillon Corkery, Darragh O'Mahony and Conn McDunphy

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O’Loughlin was 38^th at nine
seconds, with O’Mahony finishing in 42^nd place in the same time.

Jake Gray, who is back in form after a serious pre-season crash, was 47^th just one second behind his team mates. Dillon Corkery was 49^th in the same time as Gray.

Conn McDunphy was 87^th at 14
seconds and Adam Stenson was 93^rd at 15 seconds.

The racing continues tomorrow with a 134.2km stage followed by 150.6km on Saturday and the final road stage on Sunday; some 171.5km starting and finishing in Jesenik.