Race Photo - Inpho Photography
Profile Photos - Sean Rowe
Stage four of the An Post Rás had one of the hillier terrains, bringing the riders over the Ring of Kerry, starting in Dingle and covering 162.8 km before finishing in Sneem, Co. Kerry. With Eddie Dunbar suffering a late mechanical, it took great teamwork to minimise the time lost for the young rider, who is still within 20 seconds of the lead overall, lying in 12th place at 19 seconds in GC. Mark Downey is now lying 15th overall, a further 10 seconds back. Downey previously won a silver medal in the Points Race at the European Junior Championships in 2014.
Irish Team Manager David McCann said “It was a fantastic piece of team work from the boys. Eddie lost some time with a late mechanical; he pulled a wheel when attacking and then his chain got jammed. He did brilliantly along with his teammates to try his best to hang into the group until the 3km to go board, but it was a full on lead in to the bunch sprint, and fast downhill, and dangerous, so he got just tailed off before the 3km to go. He stopped to service, so gets the same time as the group he was in with Teggart and McGlinchey, who I told to give it everything to get back on. Matt gave it everything, and then Chris took over and almost made it back to the bunch, but fell just a few seconds short.”
Stage five will see the riders cover 148.3km moving from Sneem to Clonakilty, Co. Cork, with two category two climbs and three category threes.
This is the first time that Ireland has entered a team in the Rás since 2011, and this team is a primarily U23 team, with one experienced senior team captain. Multiple Olympian David McCann is the team manager for the prestigious 8 day UCI stage race.
More about the TEAM HERE
More about the STAGE HERE and FULL RESULTS HERE
TEAM:
Ronan McLaughlin
Edward Dunbar
Matthew Teggart
Mark Downey
Chris McGlinchey