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Michael O'Loughlin in the breakaway during the U23 men's road race at the World Championships in Doha. The first-year espoir put in an heroic ride to get across to a group of five original escapees and later forced a split inside the final 20km (Photo: Sean Rowe)
By Philip Cassidy
The fortunes of the Irish riders at the World Championships in Doha continue to surpass expectations after first-year espoir rider Michael O’Loughlin lit up today’s U23 road race.
In his debut worlds at this age category, the wily teenager from Carrick-on-Suir made his way into the nine-man break that stayed out front for much of the day’s 166km contest.
It was a magnificent ride from the Team Wiggins man who has shown an incredible ability to make the key selections in big races over the last number of years.
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Against the very best in the world this afternoon he bridged across to five leaders with the help of three others and he shirked no turn in that heroic chase.
Daire Feeley was clear with a Russian for a long period (Photo: Sean Rowe)
The original leaders in the escape were Bryan Gomez (Colombia), Amanuel Gebreigzabhier (Eritrea), Patrick Muller (Switzerland), Nuno Bico (Portugal) and Pascal Eenkhoorn (Netherlands).
With O’Loughlin going across were Mahdi Rajabikaboodcheshmeh (Iran), Gregory Daniel (USA) and Jean Claude Uwizeye (Rwanda).
The group of nine worked very well together and pulled out a maximum advantage of over three minutes by the midway point.
That was despite a number of strong nations; Germany, Norway, Great Britain and Spain all pulling hard to keep the break on a manageable leash.
Eddie Dunbar ended the race best of the Irish in 49th place after his 9th in the TT (Photo: Sean Rowe)
The move was reduced to eight riders when Gebreigzabhier lost touch inside 40 kilometres to go, though his day was cut short by what appeared to be an injury rather than simply blowing up.
At that point the gap was down to 1’38” as the peloton ramped up the speed behind.
And by the 25k to-go mark that gap was trimmed even more and the break clung desperately to a lead of 1’19”.
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The Irish trio in the bunch of Eddie Dunbar, Daire Feeley and Matt Teggart were all lively.
And Feeley was obviously feeling very good because he went after the break alongside a Russian rider.
Matt Teggart finished alongside O'Loughlin just 2:58 down on the winner (Photo: Sean Rowe)
However, Feeley's brave effort was reeled in by a peloton who rode for long periods at 50km per hour.
Inside 20 kilometres to go and sensing they’d be caught, O’Loughlin decided to shake things up at the front of the race.
He managed to split the break and trim it back to six riders, with every man now completely out on his feet.
There in that final selection was Eenkhoorn, Muller, Rajabikaboodcheshmeh, Daniel and Gomez (Colombia).
Alas, the peloton made the catch at the 10k to-go banner.
Norwegian's rising star Kristoffer Halvorsen took the sprint to be crowned world champion on an incredible day for his country. His teammate Amund Grondahl was second and is just about in the shot here. (Photo: Sean Rowe)
And after emptying the tank all afternoon in a three-hour breakaway, O’Loughlin was back in the bunch.
He’d end up losing a couple of minutes as the peloton ripped through the failed escape group.
It was a chaotic run-in but Norway had strength in numbers to position their two main men towards the front; Kristoffer Halvorsen and Amund Grondahl.
On this occasion it was Halvorsen who took the gallop, with Pascal Ackermann (Germany) and Jakub Mareczko (Italy) rounding out the podium.
Grondahl did have some consolation by finishing fifth.
Of the Irish, Eddie Dunbar fared best and was 49th across the line, eight seconds behind the winner.
Feeley was three seconds further back in 57th while crash-victim Matt Teggart was 105th at 2'58", one place ahead of O'Loughlin who was credited with the same time.
Thurs, Oct 13th: U23 Road Race (166km)
1 Kristoffer Halvorsen (Norway) 3:40:53
2 Pascal Ackermann (Germany)
3 Jakub Mareczko (Italy)
4 Phil Bauhaus (Germany)
5 Amund Grondahl Jansen (Norway)
6 Jason Lowndes (Australia)
7 Ivan Garcia Cortina (Spain)
8 Aksel Nommela (Estonia)
9 Jonathan Dibben (Great Britain)
10 Alan Banaszek (Poland)
11 Mads Pedersen (Denmark)
12 Alvaro Jose Hodeg Chagui (Colombia)
13 Erik Baska (Slovakia)
14 Fabio Jakobsen (Netherlands)
15 Cees Bol (Netherlands)
49 Eddie Dunbar (Ireland) 0:00:08
57 Daire Feeley (Ireland) 0:00:11
105 Matthew Teggart (Ireland) 0:02:58
106 Michael O'Loughlin (Ireland)
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