News Release, 21st June
Weekend Road Races complete Cycling Program at European Games
A five strong Irish Team started the Men’s Road Race today at the European Games in Baku. The young team tackled the tough course around the city head on. Conor Dunne put in an epic performance opening the attacking and attacked repeatedly until he dragged away the main breakaway of the day. This group spent 200km’s in the lead and included a good mix of nationalities that worked well to build up a lead of over four minutes on the peloton at one point.
The demanding course, including a cobbled climb in six short laps of 12.8km, followed by 10 laps of a longer 13.9km for a total of 215km. The field included some strong World Tour riders such as Tom Boonen, Niki Terprsta, Elia Viviani and recent European Games Time Trial Medallist, Luis Leon Gil Sanchez from Spain was looking to feature again with a strong Spanish team supporting him.
The tough conditions with over 35 degrees finally took its toll on the break and fragmenting peloton behind, with both groups merging going into the final kilometres. The final came down to a small group sprint with Sanchez the 31-year old rider from Spain taking the Gold Medal just ahead of the Ukrainian Andrily Grivko with the Bronze Medal going to Czech rider Petr Vakoc. Conor Dunne finished in 45th place and just behind him was Eddie Dunbar in 48th place who has only recently come back to race action following a crash in the Tour of Yorkshire.
Due to the severity of the day 60 riders of the 125 starters finish the race. Sole Irish finishers were Conor Dunne 45th and Eddie Dunbar in 48th Place. Jack Wilson crashed out in the opening lap while Sean Downey stayed with the main bunch for the majority of the race dropping only in the closing stages. Ryan Mullen dropped out early on after carrying out a team role to help the team goals.
Caroline Ryan competed in the Women’s race yesterday and again showed well when she attacked alone after 40km’s. After shipping her chain in the first lap and having to chase back on, Caroline attacked a few laps later and remained out front alone for about 10km’s. After been caught by the bunch Caroline paid for her efforts as the main pressure of the day went on in the cobbled section and abandoned in the second half of the race.
Speaking about the Road Race performances over the weekend, Cycling Ireland Technical Director Brian Nugent said ‘That was a super ride by Conor and indeed the team today. The team went into the race with a clear and aggressive plan laid out by Kurt and they all got stuck into that straight away. Conor forced the move today and rode strongly in it and still finished 45th after puncturing in the final 15km’s. That to me is arguably Conor’s best ever performance and to be able to do that on the big day is even more encouraging.
Caroline’s performance was surprising yesterday and while she was here to focus on the Time Trial Caroline wanted to be aggressive in the Road Race and not just hang around in the bunch.
That was the standard for the week really. The entire team recognised the enormity of the opportunity presented to them to compete for Ireland in these Games and they each pushed to get their best performances out in each event. No matter what result that brings, that is really all you can ask from a team. We have a lot of depth now as cycling Nation and I’m very excited for the future.’
Full results for the weekend’s Road Races can be found at:
http://www.baku2015.com/cycling-road/event/women-road-race/index.html
http://www.baku2015.com/cycling-road/event/men-road-race/index.html