Irish rider Ciaran Power has claimed victory in stage six of the FBD Insurance Rás from Skibbereen to Clonmel.
<notforsyndication>Click here for stage 6 and full Rás standings</notforsyndication>
Waterford rider Power, who competes for the for the Pezula team, finished three seconds clear of Christer Rake with Stephen Gallagher from the An Post team back in third.
Eugene Moriarty (6th) and Sean Lacey (7th) where part of the main breakaway group of the day that finished two minutes and 40 seconds ahead of main pack.
Bouncing back from the disappointment of falling ill earlier this week, Power was one of ten who went clear almost immediately after the drop of the flag and, 180 kilometres later, he proved the strongest of the five riders who were still in contention for the stage victory.
Stage five winner Richardson was the most dangerous in the break, starting the day 54 seconds behind the race leader David McCann (Ireland national team).
With McCann and second-placed rider overall Chris Newton (Britain Stena Line Rapha Condor Recycling.co.uk) finishing back in the main bunch two minutes and 47 seconds down, the Britain Plowman Craven rider seized the yellow jersey.
Former race leader Gallagher ended the day just ten seconds back and he will be the chief Irish hope for success when the race heads into the Wicklow mountains on Sunday.
However Power is also poised to strike, lying one minute and one second off the race lead. McCann and Newton are both one minute and 46 seconds down overall, with the former’s team-mate Roger Aiken a further six seconds back.
‘I am absolutely thrilled,’ said Power afterwards, ‘I could not be any happier. Coming into the race I should have had good legs but I have been sick for the past five days. Thankfully now I have got an inhaler and it helps with my breathing. There are two hard days left and I feel a lot better. If I recover from today you’ll never know what will happen.
‘The race doctor on the race, Conor McGrane, filled out all the paperwork and I have a TUE [therapeutic exemption form] now for the inhaler for the next couple of weeks. I have been dying all week with bronchitis. It has affected my top end kind of form. It was taken me half an hour before I could breathe properly after each stage. Today I knew by the feeling I had just after the start I was going to be able to ride again like a normal rider.’
He provided a valuable input into the horsepower of the escape, which built a maximum lead of over six minutes.
‘I got across to the break and I did about 2k on the front as soon as I got to it. We absolutely hammered it because we knew if we held them at a minute, eventually they would have to crack. And that’s what happened.’
While Power jumped up the overall standings, Richardson was the biggest to gain in that respect as he ended the day in the yellow jersey. He was understandably delighted with that.
‘This is kind of my first yellow jersey – I won the Bikeline Two-Day, which is a Premier Calendar race, but it was an orange jersey there. So it was not as nice as yellow.
‘Yesterday was my first stage win. I have a bit of a track record for getting third places back home in the Premier – I had three – so it was nice to have a bit of luck this week.’
He said that he suffered in the break due to his efforts twenty-four hours earlier. ‘Yesterday was really hard and my legs were not great today. I got across to the early move. I saw that there were three Pezula guys there and they are super-strong lads. I knew that even if I was there the other teams – Rapha and the Irish lads – would have a tough time chasing us.’
Gallagher ended the day as Richardson’s closest challenger, and said that he too suffered in building time.
‘It was a difficult day today. We knew we had to do something to start making time back up again. Yesterday was a day when our team had to regroup after some misfortune and see what was going on. When Mark (Cassidy) crashed it was a bit of a shock to us, so I think we were glad to be just able to control it yesterday.
‘I think a lot of teams were expecting us to attack and maybe get some time back but we had different plans. We decided today and tomorrow would be our big days. It was always going to be active from the start and thankfully the group that I got into was very, very strong. There were guys Ciaran Power – Pezula had three – Paul Healion, Eugene Moriarty and Simon Richardson who are all good rouleurs [strong men]. So it was the perfect group to be in.’
Eugene Moriarty (Meath MyHome.ie/BDBC), Sean Lacey (Dublin Eurocycles) and Cameron Jennings (Ireland Pezula Racing) were the others who stayed with the break until near the end, and they took places six through to eight. Moriarty’s placing saw him finish as best Irish county team rider on the stage, adding to his previous tally in that classification.
On Sunday, the race moves one stage closer to completion, and the 177 kilometre penultimate leg from Clonmel to Roundwood sees the riders tackle three ascents on the tough course. Gallagher is a good climber and is, like the other contenders, sure to attack. But Richardson also believes in his chances.
‘I can climb pretty well,’ he stated. ‘Obviously it is the seventh stage and I have had to spend some beans already this week. If it was a one-day race I know I would be fine, but we will have to wait and see. I’ll do my best.’
