Sam Bennett, Nicholas Vereecken and Shane Archbold - all of An Post-Chainreaction take a 1-2-3 finish on the final stage of the An Post Rás in Skerries, north Co Dublin, today. (Photo: Paul Mohan - Sportsfile)
Irish U23 international, Sam Bennett has taken the final stage of the An Post Rás after the finale in Skerries, north Co Dublin, came down to a sprint from a small select bunch after a bruising couple of circuits of the Blackhills.
An Post Chainreaction took a rare 1-2-3 on the stage today, with Bennett taking that victory ahead of team mate Nicholas Vereecken in second and stage 2 victory Shane Archbold in third place today.
It was Bennett’s second stage win of the week, after also coming out best in the bunch sprint that settled stage 3 into Listowel on Tuesday.
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The win for the An Post-Chainreaction rider, along with that victory during the week, gets him back to winning ways after a full season in 2012 without a victory. Bennett has also been ill on the Rás and has been on antibiotics in recent days so to end with a victory will give him great confidence for the next few weeks and months of racing ahead.
Today’s finish came down to a bunch sprint after an early breakaway was reeled in on the finishing circuit in Skerries with 20kms and two passages of the Blackhills ahead of them.
At that point, the field had already split, with an estimated 70-strong group containing the yellow jersey Marcin Bialoblocki (UK Youth) pulling away for a group of around 45 and putting 1:30 into them by the time the break was mopped up the race hurtled into the business end of the day.
That early escape group was made up of Simon Ryan (Visitnenagh.ie), Christoph Schweizer (Azerbaijan Synergy Baku), Stuart Wight (Canada National Team), Robert Hassan (Scotland National Team), Mark Sehested Pedersen (Denmark Blue Water Cycling).
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Earlier in the stage a number of Irish riders had been active before the break went clear and also in the moves that tried to bridge across. Those riders included: Fraser Duncan (Eurocyles), Eoin Morton (UCD CC) and Colin Robinson (Stamullen M Donnelly).
An Post-Chainreaction's Sean Downey marked many of the early moves and when the breakaway became established he did much of the riding to ensure it did not get too far and also to bring it back when the time came to close things down.
When the breakaway was reeled in the key men in the overall classification hunt – Connor McConvey (Synergy Baku) and Rasmus Guldhammer (Denmark Blue Water) – were down to their last chance to attack leader Marcin Bialoblocki (UK Youth).
McConvey was second overall going into today’s final stage and Guldhammer – a former HTC Highroad pro - was third. But both were on the same time as Bialoblocki.
However, while the pace was very high around the finishing circuit and the lead group slimmed to around 25 last time up the Blackhills with Simon Yates of Team GB briefly going clear, it remained intact until the finish, where Bennett benefited from a perfect lead-out and he and his team mates simply demolished the opposition.
Result - Stage 8 - Naas to Skerries
1 Bennett,Sam SKT Belg. An Post Chain Reaction 3h14'08"
2 Vereecken,Nicholas SKT Belg. An Post Chain Reaction 3h14'08"
3 Archbold,Shane SKT Belg. An Post Chain Reaction 3h14'08"
4 Barry,Dan NGR BRITAIN NODE4 Giordana 3h14'08"
5 De Pauw,Moreno BEL BELGIUM National Team 3h14'08"
6 Bialoblocki,Marcin UKY BRITAIN UK Youth Pro Cycling 3h14'08"
7 Guldhammer,Rasmus BWC DENMARK Blue Water Cycling 3h14'08"
8 Doull,Owain Great Britain National Team 3h14'08"
9 Oliphant,Evan SCO Scotland National Team 3h14'08"
10 Oellegaard,Morten BWC DENMARK Blue Water Cycling 3h14'08"
11 Kratochvila,Jakub AUSTRIA Arbo Gebrder 3h14'08"
12 De Buyst,Jasper BEL BELGIUM National Team 3h14'08"
13 Northey,Michael NGR BRITAIN NODE4 Giordana 3h14'08"
14 McConvey,Connor BCP AZERBAIJAN Synergy Baku 3h14'08"
15 Kuiper,Bouke KOG HOLLAND Koga Cycling Team 3h14'08"
16 Hunal,Martin ASP Czech Republic Sparta Praha 3h14'08"
17 Aiken,Roger LOUTH Prague Charter Team 3h14'08"
18 Yates,Simon Great Britain National Team 3h14'08"
19 Richard RCJ BRITAIN Rapha Condor JLT 3h14'08"
20Foder,Daniel BWC DENMARK Blue Water Cycling 3h14'08"
21 Greenwood,Ben SCO Scotland National Team 3h14'08"
22 Lampier,Steve NGR BRITAIN NODE4 Giordana 3h14'08"
23 Slater,Alistair Great Britain National Team 3h14'08"
24 Perrett,Joseph IGS BRITAIN IG - Sigma Sport 3h14'08"
25 Dowling,Mark PSN IRELAND Polygon Sweet Nice 3h14'08"
Marcin Bialoblocki (UK Youth) celebrates winning the final yellow jersey after stage 8 of the 2013 An Post Rás from Naas to Skerries today. (Photo: Paul Mohan - Sportsfile)
