An Post Rás – Stage Three for Irish Team


Stage three of the An Post Rás saw a slightly hillier profile, with the riders taking on the 133.2km from Charleville to Dingle, taking in the Conor’s Pass. Eddie Dunbar started the stage in 6th place, and is now 5 seconds off the general classification leader, in 4th overall, after a really strong ride today, which saw him finish the stage in 8th place, a great result considering he was also in an earlier move with teammate Ronan McLaughlin.


Irish Team Manager David McCann felt it was a good performance all round saying “The guys rode well today, early on there was a dangerous move and both Eddie and Ronan were in it, so we had it well under control until the Australians did a big chase to bring it back, they had missed it. Eddie had the legs and went again, and on the line just lost 5 seconds. Mark was in the next group, so is right up there, and Chris is in there too. Matt got tailed off a bit up Conor Pass and with Ronan someone crashed into him at the bottom of the climb, so he took it easy home. On a climb like that if you get a mechanical there’s no point chasing back. Ronan did a fantastic job to be in the move earlier, he’s riding much better than the results show.”


Tomorrow’s stage will see the race travel over the Ring of Kerry, taking in climbs like Glencar and Coomacista; “there will be more hills, none on a par with Conor’s Pass, but it will be the first real day. It’s always a tough one on the Ring of Kerry; the roads are up and down and twisty. Coomacista is just a Cat 2, but it’s a tough one, and they are tough roads after it too. The stage is 100 miles, we’ll see what happens, it’s all to play for.”


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 with FULL RESULTS


TEAM:



Ronan McLaughlin


Edward Dunbar


Matthew Teggart


Mark Downey


Chris McGlinchey