Rico Rogers blasts to victory in Carlow ahead of key climbing battle for yellow

Rico Rogers (Synergy Baku) takes stage victory in a packed Carlow from Owain Doull (Team GB) and yellow jersey Marcin Bialoblocki of UK Youth (Photo: Adrian O'Connor - www.blackumbrellaphotography.com )

Australian Rico Rogers has taken a great sprint victory on stage 6 of the An Post Rás into Carlow this afternoon, the second in succession for his Synergy Baku team.

However, the Azerbaijani-based squad with the heavy Irish influence knows tomorrow on the climbs of Wicklow is D-Day on this year’s race as their Irish rider Connor McConvey attempts to win the Rás at his third attempt.

Best of the Irish into Carlow was McConvey in 11^th spot in the same time as his team mate and stage victor Rogers.

On the road today there was no movement in the positions of the man favourites for outright victory, but there were plenty of very strong performances and not for the first time this week the Irish were in thick of it.

First to try his luck with an attack almost immediately the race left Mitchelstown was Ryan Sherlock (Polygon Sweet Nice), followed by Christoph Schweizer (Synergy Baku), Conor Murphy (Dublin West Eurocycles), Dan Barry (Britain Node4 Giordana Racing), Mike Fitzgerald (Tipperary Carrick Iverk Produce), Bryan McCrystal (Louth Prague Charter), Marc Potts (Derry Duffin Transport) and John Dempsey (Tipperary Carrick Iverk Produce).

Most of those riders moved clear in ones and twos but nothing stuck until John Lynch of UCD CC had a go after about 15km. He was joined by Jacob Rytlewski (USA Astellas Oncology) and Art MacManusa (Dublin South).

Shortly after that, Stephen Halpin (Ireland Polygon Sweet Nice) and Olan Barrett (Cork Aquablue) bridged across to the three leaders. That made five up front, four of them Irish, and that group would become the main breakaway of the day.

They knuckled down to their task and by the time they had covered 40km of the 153km stage, the gap to the bunch was hovering at 1 minute.

The roads were mainly rolly in the first half of the stage until things got a lot more testing in the back end of the day, with five categorised climbs: cat 2 Byrnesgrove at 109km, cat 3 Castelcomer at 116, cat 1 Gorteen at 121km, cat 2 Coan West at 125km and the cat 2 Clongrennan crested at 133km, just 20km from the finish.

After around 40kms out front the breakaway's gap peaked at 2:30, with 55kms covered. However, the bunch were never going to let the escape continue to build their lead and when some pressure was applied back in the bunch, the gap immediately began to fall.

Up front, the first sign the breakaway men were starting to wilt was when MacManusa, the winner of the Newry Three Day last year and a very strong rider, lost contact with the escape just before the 70km mark.

A little further up the road at the hot spot prime in Urlingford at the 77.5km point, Barrett nabbed that but the gap was down to 30 seconds back to the bunch. Sensing that the game was up, Halpin sat up and waited to be reabsorbed, while Lynch did the same not long after.

The Node4 Giordana duo of Dan Barry and Mike Northey had broken clear of the main field and they joined up with Barrett and Rytlewski, making it four up front and the gap went out a little to 45 seconds and then back out to over one minute; with the men who had just sat up from the escape – John Lynch and Stephen Halpin – undoubtedly starting to feel a little anxious back in the peloton.

However, while Barrett was doing a great ride he was given a swift kick in the proverbials when he punctured and was caught by the peloton just after a quick wheel change.

The gap to the escape then stayed at 1:20 for a long time and only began to come down as the riders began the climb of Castelcomer, a third cat crested just under 50km from the finish.

After that point, a number of chasers sprang from the bunch in small groups and in the form of solo efforts; these included Ronan McLaughlin (An Post-Chainreaction), Jacob Nielsen (Denmark Blue Water), Thomas Lavery (Waterford Comeragh) and Roger Aiken (Louth Charter Prague).

However, nothing stuck and the bunch was all together at the 20km to go marker when it reeled in the breakaway. There was plenty of drama on the run on with some late but fruitless attacks, but a group of just over 50 riders arrived in Carlow to fight it out, with the Australian Rogers coming out on top.

An Post Rás stage 6: Mitchelstown - Carlow 153km

1, Rico Rogers (Azerbaijan Synergy Baku)

2, Owain Doull (Great Britain National Team)

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