Eddie brings home goldfromtheTour of Flanders
WHEN Eddie Dunbar attacked with 30km of the 168km race remaining at the U23 Tour of Flanders on Saturday only two men could go with him.
However, the Irishman soon dispatched Norwegian Tobias Foss and Frenchman Alexys Brunel was next to go. When Eddie went over the top of the final climb of the Eikenberg Brunel struggled to get back to him.
Some of the best U23 riders in the world were under severe pressure. With the finish in sight, Eddie put in another acceleration and pulled clear of Brunel.
And though he took his time to celebrate at the finish, he still had 49 seconds in hand on the line. He came home that margin clear of a group of 11 riders.
Belgian Jasper Philipsen won the sprint for 2nd from Jérémy Lecroq of France and his Irish team mates including club mate Darragh O’Mahony finishing in the bunch.
Across in Scotland, riding for the Irish Talent Team in the Youth Tour of Scotland Lucy O’Donnell did well in stage 1 , and in the Team Time Trial the girls took 6th place out of 18. In the afternoon race on Sunday Lucy rode a strong race helping a team mate to second place in stage 3, which was a tough five laps totalling 35k. Well done, Lucy.
In the Boys Irish team in Scotland, Will Ryan was 19th in Saturday’s stage 1, then on Sunday the Irish team won the Boys Team Time Trial, moving Will up to 9th overall before the start of the nine lap 62k stage 3 race. After 4 laps Will bridged across to a two man break, and did well for three laps before slipping back through the field.
Locally, a large number of O’Leary Stone club members, both youth and senior, travelled to Fermoy to compete in the Silver Pail GP.
In the U12 race, Ewen McConville won a hard sprint to take 1st place and Stephen Sheehan 6th. Michael Nolan took 1st unplaced U11.
In the U14s David Shine rode a strong race to finish 2nd with Ronan Leahy 5th and Luke Moynihan and Patrick Morley just behind.
The U16 race saw a large bunch take off, which was quickly split. Sean Barrett and Tom Moriarty rode clear with Sean taking a great win. Tom Moriarty was second and Denis Murphy took a strong 3rd with Daniel Yonhin finishing 6th just ahead of the bunch with Tom O’Connor, Luke Thompson, Arnaud Dimoulin and Tadhg Walsh, so a clean sweep of the podium.
In the adult section, Billy Allen finished 8th in the A4 race with Mick O’Shea and Noel Moloney finishing in the bunch.
Evan O’Donnell, Steven Gilman finished in the bunch of the Jnr/A3 group.
Well done to all the cyclists who competed over the weekend.
The club is now preparing for its three-day event, April 29 - May 1. This event brings cyclist from far and near and it is a great opportunity for our sponsors and locals to come and see the local club members competing.