There was heartbreak for Irish Champion David O'Loughlin on today's fifth stage of the FBD Insurance RÁS.
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O'Loughlin was contesting the finish at Skibereen with British rider Stephen Richardson when he punctured within the last 3 kilometres.
However, David McCann successfully defended his race leader’s yellow jersey.
McCann faced a serious threat to his jersey when two general classification contenders made it into the day’s crucial break.
Simon Richardson (Britain Plowman Craven) and Kit Gilham had started the day are major threats to the yellow jersey, having started the day 2’35 and 2’41 back in 25th and 26th place overall.
They, David O’Loughlin (Ireland Pezula Racing) and Patrick Kos (Netherlands) went clear before Farranfore, the first of five climbs on the stage.
The group opened up a maximum lead of four minutes 45 seconds over the main bunch, working well together over the tough terrain.
And although the gap did narrow towards the finish, Richardson and O’Loughlin had enough left in reserve to raise their game, ramp up their speed and finish over a minute clear.
‘It was a beautiful stage, I loved every minute of it,’ said the Englishman afterwards.
‘It was super hard because of the wind and the climbs themselves, because of the wind, were almost nullified. I knew that with the time gaps we had, I was possibly looking at yellow at the end of today, so I gave it everything.
‘It was super unfortunate that David punctured at the end…it is not the best way to win a stage, off the back of someone else’s misfortune. I really don’t know what his finish is like [if it had come to a sprint]. I think he had a lot of riding left in him, though, so it would have been tough.’
Although the riders were clear for a long time during the stage, he said that towards the end he became relatively confident that they could stay away.
‘With about 30 or 40 kilometres to go, we were really not riding very fast and yet the time gap was not really coming down. I knew I had a couple of gears left and I had hoped that once we started riding, that they would struggle to bring us back.’
Vos cracked 36 kilometres from the end and then, eleven kilometres later, Richardson attacked. O’Loughlin bided his time, continuing to ride along with Gilham, then bridged across alone several kilometres later.
As he had done when winning the Shay Elliott Memorial earlier this year, he was clear for much of the day and was looking to use his fast finish to take the victory. However that went out the window when he punctured inside the final three kilometres. He got a spare bike but didn’t have enough time to get back to the front.
‘I drilled it hard as soon as I got the bike change,’ he said. ‘I was closing on him but I just did not have enough road at the end so I sort of gave up in the last few hundred metres. Obviously I am very disappointed.’
He’s determined that he and the team will keep trying. ‘Ciaran (Power) was up there in a sprint today and he is in good form. He will be fighting for a stage win as well the rest of the week. Hopefully we will have more aggressive riding from here on and hopefully we will come away with a stage win.
‘The Pezulas have been great this year. They gave us a good investment in Irish cycling and that helped greatly towards my track programme for the Olympics. It is all really positive and it is good for Irish cycling.’
Richardson had started the day well placed overall and so was clearly a concern to McCann. However he finished 54 seconds off the yellow jersey, moving up to sixth overall but still needing more time. He’s likely to try again in the remaining three days, but the 2004 Rás winner is relatively confident.
‘I was not too concerned when the break went away,’ said McCann. ‘In some ways it might suit me to have another guy from a different team close behind but not leading. I was not really that worried when the time went up because I was pretty confident we could bring it back when we needed to.’
There is likely to be a big showdown on Saturday. He feels up to the task. ‘Those are the hills where I have won the Ras before – all around the Wicklow Mountains. I have won stages there and I have won the Shay Elliott, so this is my racing territory. I am looking forward to those hills.’
Before then, he will have to get through today’s 180 kilometre stage from Skibbereen to Clonmel. Six riders are within a minute or less of his race lead and there’s plenty of opportunity for them to attack. However he’s got confidence in the other riders in the green jersey.
‘Robin Seymour, Micheal Concannon, Paul Griffin and Roger Aiken…on paper you might not think it, but this is one of the strongest teams I have been on. They are riding really well. They are just phenomenal. They are making my job a lot easier.’
