Darren Rafferty and Adam Ward were Ireland's best finishers in the U23 road race at the European Championships in sweltering Portugal today. While it was a very hard 147km race in Anadia, it was a more controlled contest than the junior events yesterday, and proved more of a war of attrition.
A late four-man breakaway got clear, on the penultimate lap, and just about held on to battle it out for the medals. Those four came over the line just three seconds ahead of the main field, which was reduced to less than 50 riders.
Of the Irish team, both Darren Rafferty and Adam Ward were in that whittled down peloton, placing 27th and 41st respectively three seconds behind new European U23 road race champion Felix Engelhardt.
The German 21-year-old, in his fourth season with Austrian Continental team Tirol KTM, went early in the sprint from the breakaway to hold off Mathias Vacek (Czech Republic). Italian rider Davide De Pretto was just behind that leading duo and took bronze as Hungarian Erik Fetter drew the short straw and took 4th from the four-man winning move.
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The race was run off in temperatures reaching over 30°C, making for very challenging conditions. The course also featured two climbs to be negotiated seven times; one of 1.7km with an average gradient of 5.8 per cent and the other 400m at nine per cent.
Kevin McCambridge finished 62nd at 3:51 while Archie Ryan and Dean Harvey were both in a group at 10:04, finishing 88th and 91st respectively. Odhran Doogan was among the 50 non-finishers.
Earlier on Sunday, Caoimhe O'Brien was Ireland's sole representative in the U23 women's road race. She placed 46th, in a group at 9:06 in a race with a large number of non-finishers.
That race was won by Dutch 20-year-old, and Trek-Segafredo professional, Shirin van Anrooij. She claimed the gold in a solo move some 11 seconds ahead of a 12-rider chase group. Vittoria Guazzini of Italy won the sprint for silver ahead of Fem van Empel of the Netherlands.
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In the junior women's road race yesterday, Aoife O'Brien and Erin Creighton were in action for Ireland. The 83km event was an aggressive affair, which split to pieces. It was won by French rider Eglantine Rayer in a three-up sprint from Italians Eleonora Ciabocco and Federica Venturelli.
O'Brien finished in the last group on the road, which was classified as being outside the time limit, while Creighton was among the non-finishers on a day when the heat played a massive part in the outcome.
In the men's junior race, also yesterday, the field also split up very significantly during 125.9km of all-out action. The gold medal was won by Jan Christen, the 18-year-old Swiss rider who is already signed by UAE Team Emirates.
Jørgen Nordhagen, a first-year junior from Norway, was 2nd at 18 seconds while another 17-year-old, France's Léo Bisiaux, finished alone at 2:02 for the bronze.
Ireland's best finisher was junior national TT champion Conal Scully; placing 29th at 6:36 - a very solid performance in what was a brutal race which 65 riders did not finish. Niall McLoughlin also finished the race for Ireland, placing 44th at 6:50 - of 75 finishers spread 17 minutes from first to last.
Adam Gilsenan, Liam O'Brien, Patrick O'Loughlin and Sam Bolger were also in the Irish team for the junior men's road race and were among the non-finishers.
