The Irish team battled well in the junior road race at the European Championships in Estonia. above.
Ireland’s Michael O’Loughlin, Simon Tuomey and Darragh O’Mahony were all in the main bunch at the end of men’s junior road race at the European Championships in Estonia.
That peloton contained 44 riders and finished 17 seconds down on the winning seven-man breakaway.
The field split towards the end of the 124km contest on Sunday morning, with two other groups finishing in between the leaders and the bunch.
O’Mahony was best of the Irish in 63rd followed by Tuomey in 68th and O’Loughlin in 73rd, all 17 seconds down on the winner.
The riders faced 10 laps of a 12.4-kilometre circuit with two short sharp ramps that reached 10 per cent to negotiate each time.
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The main break of the day contained Tobias Foss (Norway), Matteo Sobrero and Tomasso Fiaschi (Italy) and Thomas Vereecken (Belgium).
That group was kept on a short leash, however, and never had any meaningful gap out front.
On the fourth lap a crash saw the bunch split, with O’Loughlin and O’Mahony getting caught on the wrong side of that split.
However, after a strong chase they were back in the main field again by the next lap.
As the laps continued to tick down, so too did the number of riders in the main bunch and from 154 starters the peloton was down to less than 100 by the halfway point.
O’Loughlin started to move towards the front on the final laps while his two Irish teammates stayed safely in the rapidly-diminishing bunch.
A quartet of Alan Banaszek (Poland), Nicolas Nessi (Italy), Aaron Verwilst (Belgium) and Guillaume Millaseau (France) went clear in those final laps but like the earlier escape, they too were brought back.
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However, Polish rider Banaszek was obviously feeling good, as he was present when a group of seven pulled clear in the decisive move in the closing stages of the race.
And in the sprint to the line he was quickest, taking the title after almost three hours of racing from Stan Dewulf of Belgium and Dutchman Dennis Van Der Horst.
All seven riders in the winning move finished on the same time, with a gap of four seconds to the next group on the road, numbering 17 riders.
There were also some stragglers just off the back of that group and then the peloton containing the Irish.
Today’s title showdown was a debut major road race for Tuomey and O’Mahony and represents some good experienced banked.
O’Loughlin will also have learnt a lot from the Europeans and will now focus on next month’s World Championships in America.
European Road Champs, Estonia
Sun, Aug 9th: Junior Road Road Race
1 BANASZEK, Alan POL 2h50'19''
2 DEWULF, Stan BEL 0''
3 VAN DER HORST, Dennis NED same time
4 VERWILST, Aaron BEL same time
5 HIRSCHI, Marc SUI same time
6 GENIETS, Kevin LUX same time
7 GALEEV, Aynur RUS same time
8 PHILIPSEN, Jasper BEL 4''
9 VAGA, Kristo Enn EST same time
10 PER, Gorazd SLO same time
11 NEUHAUSER, Marcel AUT same time
12 SAJNOK, Szymon POL same time
13 SPENGLER, Mario SUI same time
14 VEREECKEN, Thomas BEL same time
15 EENKHOORN, Pascal NED same time
16 KOOISTRA, Marten NED same time
17 HALLER, Patrick GER same time
18 SANDERSSON, Erik SWE same time
19 LEYDER, Pit LUX same time
20 SLAWEK, Damian POL same time
21 CARVALHO, André POR same time
22 GALL, Felix AUT same time
23 SLEEN, Torjus NOR same time
24 SIVAKOV, Pavel RUS same time
25 NESI, Nicolas ITA same time
26 MILLASSEAU, Guillaume FRA 7''
27 JACOBS, Johan SUI same time
28 SALMON, Martin Alexander GER same time
29 POGACAR, Tadej SLO same time
30 LAUK, Karl Patrick EST 14''
31 ANIOLKOWSKI, Stanislav POL 17''
32 HORVAT, Ziga SLO same time
33 EEKHOFF, Nils NED same time
34 KULIKOVSKIY, Aleksander RUS same time
35 ANDERSSON, Vincent SWE same time
63 O'MAHONY, Darragh IRL 17"
68 TUOMEY, Simon IRL same time
73 O'LOUGHLIN, Michael IRL same time
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