Irish U23 international, Jamie Meehan, has made a strong start to his 2025 road campaign, his first with new French UCI Continental team AVC Aix Provence Dole.
The 21-year-old, who has represented Ireland at the Worlds and Tour de l'Avenir, was in action today at Classica Camp de Morvedre (1.2), some 178km with two ascents of the Alto del Garbi to finish, an 8.8km climb at 5.5 per cent gradient.
The race was won by 2024 Vuelta stage winner, Urko Berrade (Equipo Kern Pharma), after he attacked on the second and final passage of the climb once the early breakaway had been mopped up.
The remains of the peloton, which Meehan was in, split up and over the climb, after which just the 20km descent remained to the finish in Estivella.
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Though a two-man chase group got very close to him, Berrade held them off by 10 seconds, with Nicolas Breuillard (St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93) and Sergio Geovani Chumil (Burgos Burpellet BH) 2nd and 3rd.
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Meehan finished in 25th, in a 10-man chasing group at 1:07. There were much bigger gaps in the field behind as the two passages of the climb, in the final third of the race, split the race to pieces.
Meehan was in contention until the closing stages of the race and can be happy with his performance on the first day of the 2025 campaign.
Killian O'Brien was due to make his debut today for Petrolike, his new UCI Continental Mexican-registered team. However, the 18-year-old first-year U23 was forced to postpone his debut as an injury flared up.
