Eddie Dunbar and Michael O'Loughlin rode very well at the Worlds, but when the big picture began on the last lap it was other nations that dictated the outcome (Photo: Sean Rowe)
By Brian Canty
In Ponferrada
Michael O’Loughlin was best of the Irish in this morning’s junior men’s road race at the World Championships in Spain, the Carrick man coming home in 44th some 1:33 behind winner Jonas Bokeloh of Germany.
Eddie Dunbar and Stephen Shanahan were the only other two Irish finishers and they crossed the line 3:51 and 9:56 down; in 60th and 92nd place respectively.
Both Daire Feeley and Dylan’s O’Brien’s hopes of doing well were scuppered early on.
O’Brien went down in a crash in the opening five kilometres but he battled to get back on before tailing off on the third of seven laps.
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Feeley suffered cruel luck too – just like at the European Championships – when he punctured on the opening lap and never managed to get back into the race despite a brave but futile chase.
Dunbar had come into the race as a real medal contender and the young Corkman rode a textbook race, with the help of O’Loughlin and Shanahan.
The plan within the Irish camp was to keep Dunbar as fresh as possible for as long as possible and engineer a race-winning situation on the final laps.
O'Loughlin sprints in at the end of his race , but his 8th place in the TT will linger much longer than what was a disappointing outcome for the team today (Photo: Sean Rowe)
And that plan seemed to be going to perfection with Dunbar staying right towards the front of the race, with O’Loughlin and Shanahan never too far away from him.
Lap after lap saw riders jump clear only to be reeled back in on a really testing course.
Adrien Costa from America was one rider who almost got a minute at one point; the time-trial silver medallist from Tuesday going clear with a Kazahk rider in the early part of the race only to be brought back.
And each time the riders crested the two major climbs on the 18-kilometre course, the Irish were right where they needed to be – towards the front, not in the wind and conserving energy as much as possible.
But like the U23 race yesterday, the last two laps saw a real increase in the number of attacks, with Dunbar going clear in two moves on the penultimate that looked dangerous at the time but were very quickly recaptured.
A pattern emerged of small groups breaking off the front and gaining gaps of less than 20 seconds before being brought back.
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As the riders took the bell for the last lap things started to go awry for the Irish as Dunbar and O’Loughlin slipped off the back.
Dunbar could be seen very close to the front for a lot of the race and that effort combined with his attacks clearly took their toll on him.
While O’Loughlin was the last man standing, he took 8th in the junior time trial at these championships and will come out of this week with a new standing.
In that context, he will be disappointed not to have finished in the front group today, though his riding for Dunbar meant his personal result was not top priority today.
Shanahan’s chances of finishing in the front ended when he was caught behind a crash on the long drag with just over a lap to go when the race was going forward and when recovery from a setback of any nature was impossible.
Cresting the summit before the run for home, the bunch was down to around 30 riders with no Irish in there.
And that's how it stayed to the line, Bokeloh timing his sprint to perfection to just edge it from Aleksandr Kulikovskiy from Russia and Peter Lenderink of the Netherlands.
We’ll have reaction from the Irish camp later.
World Championships U23 Road Race
1 Jonas Bokeloh (Germany) 3:07:00
2 Alexandr Kulikovskiy (Russian Federation)
3 Peter Lenderink (Netherlands)
4 Edoardo Affini (Italy)
5 Magnus Klaris (Denmark)
6 Izidor Penko (Slovenia)
7 Lucas Eriksson (Sweden)
8 Lorenzo Fortunato (Italy)
9 Léo Danes (France)
10 Sjoerd Bax (Netherlands)
11 Jordi Warlop (Belgium)
12 Wilmar Paredes (Colombia)
13 Emiel Planckaert (Belgium)
14 Gino Mäder (Switzerland)
15 Moritz Fußnegger (Germany)
16 James Shaw (Great Britain)
17 Masahiro Ishigami (Japan)
18 Mitchell Cornelisse (Netherlands)
19 Christian Koch (Germany)
20 Martin Schäppi (Switzerland)
44 Michael O'loughlin (Ireland) @1:44
60 Eddie Dunbar (Ireland) @3:51
92 Stephen Shanahan (Ireland) @9:56
DNF Dylan O'brien (Ireland)
DNF Daire Feeley (Ireland)
(A 34-man group sprinted for the win. There were 110 finishers, scattered over 23 minutes, and 77 non-finishers)
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