Irish cyclist Philip Deignan clocked up another strong performance today by finishing an excellent ninth in the U-23 road race at the world cycling championships in Madrid.
Although he said afterwards that course was not hard enough to make full use of his strong climbing abilities, he was one of the most active riders in the closing stages of the 168 kilometre event.
The Grant Thornton Team Ireland rider was part of the main bunch with three laps to go, over a minute adrift of a large break. He punctured, got a wheel from team-mate Paídi O'Brien and then cut his way through the field to get across to the leaders.
One rider had gone clear by this point, Dmytro Grabovskyy (Ukraine), and while Deignan set off in pursuit with Australian Chris Sutton with about three kilometres remaining, they were reeled in by the rest of the chase group.
This then broke apart when Sutton's team-mate Will Walker counterattacked and slipped away with Evgeny Petrov (Russia).
Deignan just held off the main bunch to take a fine ninth. Ireland's Ryan Connor rode aggressively all day and finished the race, while O'Brien sacrificed his chances to help Deignan get going quickly after his flat. He gave him his wheel and was chasing back onto the main bunch after getting a spare when he crashed.
Irish rider Andrew McQuaid also fell, going down on the first of eight laps today. He withdrew from the race, as did Miceal Concannon a couple of laps later. .
RESULT
1, Dmytro Grabovskyy (Ukraine) 168 kilometres in 3 hours 56 mins 23 secs
2, Will Walker (Australia) at 26 secs
3, Evgeny Popov (Russia) same time
4, Carlo Westphal (Germany) at 33 secs
5, Chris Sutton (Australia) same time
6, Tiziano Dall'antonia (Italy) at 35 secs
7, Gianni Meersman (Belgium)
8, Steve Morabito (Switzerland)
9, Philip Deignan (Ireland)
10, Pieter Jacobs (Belgium) all same time
ALSO
116, Ryan Conor, at 11 mins
DNF: Paidi O'Brien
Miceal Concannon
Andrew McQuaid
