The first key breakaway of the An Post Rás heads towards Roscommon in the rain today, with five Irish riders in it (Photo: John Barrington)
The An Post-Chainreaction team may have fielded just two Irish men out of a possible five in its line-up for this year’s An Post Rás, but it is the Belgian-based squad that has drawn first blood on stage 1 into Roscommon this afternoon, Sunday.
Irish-born Robert Jon-McCarthy took the stage win and the first yellow jersey of this year's race.
Australian U23 international, McCarthy romped home at the head of the huge sprint to take his first senior race in Ireland.
His family emigrated to Australia when he was 14 years and had already begun cycling with Fermoy CC, with his performance today capping a fantastic homecoming of sorts for him and his family.
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His team mate, and a stage winner here last year, Kiwi Shane Archbold took second place today on what was a very big result for the squad riding the Irish national tour backed by their title sponsor.
Rounding out the podium was Daniel Klemme, despite his Synergy Baku team spending much of the stage on the front of the bunch trying successfully to close down the escape after its lead reached three minutes. The squad was clearly protecting the chances for final yellow of is fancied Irish man Connor McConvey, who was second overall last year.
Today's victor, McCarthy triumphed after a 10-man breakaway that had been up the road virtually all day split in the closing kilometres and were mopped up just a couple of kilometres from home.
In that break were five Irish riders Sean Downy (An Post-Chainreaction), Peter Hawkins (Madison Genesis), Bryan McCrystal (Aquablue), Eoin Morton (UCD CC) and Fraser Duncan (DID Dunboyne); the latter taking the only climbers' prime of the day and so holding the polka dot jersey this evening.
Downey is best placed of the Irish overall, holding 4th and equal on time with Duncan in 5th.
How it unfolded
Stage 1: Dunboyne to Roscommon (149.8km)
With the first stage win and first yellow jersey on offer today, coupled with the usual super aggression of any Rás stage, the 150km run from Dunboyne to Roscommon was always going to be action stations all the way.
The commencement of action was, unfortunately, unfolded in rain fall and Davide Ballerini (Italy Idea 2010 ASD) was the first to gain a time gap, with attacks quickly followed by Patrick Clarke (Mayo South Centra) and team mate Padraig Marrey.
However, they were reabsorbed after a period and with around 20km completed the peloton was intact. Clarke was soon off the front again and was this time joined by Sean Lacey and Olan Barrett of the Cork Aquablue team; three very strong men who built a lead of 15 seconds before the bunch reacted and they were caught again.
As the field headed for the first prime of the 2014 Rás, the hot sport sprint in Athboy, Co Meath, at 41km it was national U23 champion Jack Wilson (An Post-Chainreaction) who attacked with Keith Gater (Cork Aquablue) and they managed to get 20 seconds on the field almost immediately.
However, it was not to be and the two riders were quickly caught and an escape of seven moved clear before the Athboy prime. Last year’s overall winner Marcin Bialoblocki (Britain Velosure Giordana) took the prime from the fancied home rider Damien Shaw (Cork City Aquablue) and the always competitive Briton Ian Bibby (Britain Madison Genesis) in third place.
With the first sprint point out of the way and with 47.4km covered in a very fast opening hour of racing, a serious looking move then made its way up the road.
It featured Peter Hawkins (Britain Madison Genesis), Bryan McCrystal (Cork City Aquablue), Eoin Morton (Dublin Central UCD Arrow) and Fraser Duncan (Meath Dunboyne DID) before Nic Hamilton (Canada National Team) then bridged.
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That five were then joined by five more. They were Nathan Edmondson (Britain Velosure Giordana), Sean Downey (Ireland An Post Chain Reaction), Marc Ryan (New Zealand National Team), Davide Ballerini (Italy Team Idea 2010 Asd) and Lars Horring (Netherlands Parkhotel Valkenburg).
With a really good group of 10 now up front, they worked really well and gained 1:20 as the first time checks were reported before jumping to 1:50.
The Synergy Baku team obviously has confidence in its hope for yellow Connor McConvey, putting men on the front to close down the breakaway its gap reached there minutes (Photo: With thanks to Mark Kelly)
At the sprint in Coole with 76.5km completed it was the way who has won more races than any other in Ireland so far this year Fraser Duncan (Meath Dunboyne DID) taking the honours from another in-form rider Sean Downey (Ireland An Post Chain Reaction) and Marc Ryan (New Zealand National Team).
That left Duncan and the winner of the first prime Bialoblocki with the all important time bonuses and Duncan in virtual yellow of those in the escape. As the rain poured down and with almost 90kms covered, the gap was now a massive three minutes.
Behind the bunch was kicking into action, with the Synergy Baku team of last year’s runner up Connor McConvey visible on the from along with the KTM squad and with 45km left, the gap was immediately coming down and was just above two minutes.
At the first climbers prime of this year’s race, the cat 3 at Richmount at 106km, it was again Fraser who took it, this time from the flying county man Morton, Marc Ryan and Downey.
Between that point and the sprint prime at Ballymahon, with 114km of the 150km stage completed, the gap between the break and bunch continued to tumble, with time check of 1:30 being reported over race radio.
At that Ballymahon prime, it was Hawkins who took it from two riders clearly on a flier and ready to do a ride; Downey and Morton.
The story of the stage was remaining the same; the 10 out front being slowly reeled it, with the rain drenching every man. The Synergy Baku men were putting in a good ride in the bunch and were being aided by Austria Tirol as the gap edged closer to the 1 minute mark with 25km to the finish in Roscommon remaining.
However, just as it looked like the chase behind was being perfectly timed and it would all come back together, a number of time checks revealed the gap stubbornly staying around the 1:10 mark.
The rain and fast pace on stage 1 was start to kick in in the bunch behind, as the large pack began to break up and at the 20km to go point it was still 1:05 but shortly after had plummeted to 43 seconds and the bunch gallop scenario into Roscommon was looking more likely.
The rain had begun again despite stopping for a while and the riders crossed the River Shannon and were officially in the west.
Almost immediately and with the gap closing, three of the breakaway went clear after some attacking; Eoin Morton, Bryan McCrystal and Italian Davide Ballerini going clear of the other seven.
With 15km remaining the official time checks were 13 seconds between the leading trio and the seven they had left and a further 45 seconds back to the bunch. So the gap between the front of the race and the bunch had actually grown a little.
The situation remained that way for a period, with the gap between the three leaders and the chasing seven men at 10 seconds and the bunch now breathing down everyone’s necks.
The trio out front were then caught by the chasers, making it 10 up front again, with a gap of just 21 seconds back to the bunch.
As the gap closed to 12 seconds, the breakaway split in two, with five riders pulling clear. They were Hawkins and McCrystal from Ireland, along with Edmonson, Ballerini and Hamilton.
By the 4km to go marker they still had around 10 seconds on the bunch, which had by now caught the other five riders who had been part of the breakaway.
However, the peloton was relentless and with just a couple of kilometres remaining all the breakaway had been swept up, setting the scene for a huge bunch sprint into Roscommon which Robert-Jon McCarthy took from team mate Shane Archbold.
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