Marcin Bialoblocki of the British Motorpoint team stole the show at today’s sixth stage of the An Post Rás, which finished in the south coast seaside resort of Tramore.
(View Roy Willoughby's report on the An Post Rás stage six here.)
(View video highlights from the An Post Rás 2011 here.)
The 27-year old Polish rider was involved in a closely fought battle with Anatoliy Pakhtusov (Ukraine ISD Lampre) and Wouter Sybrandy (Britain Sigma Special) to win the stage.
The trio entered the final kilometre to rapturous cheers from the huge crowd which had gathered on the uphill ascent to the line.
Sybrandy was dropped first, leaving Pakhtusov and Bialoblocki to fight it out. The latter was quickest up the climb and went well clear, taking the stage by a margin of five seconds.
Pakhtusov’s second place in the stage saw him take the same place in the overall classification, having started the day in tenth position. Overnight leader, Gediminas Bagdonas (An Post Sean Kelly) finished in fourteenth place, just under two minutes behind Bialoblocki, which means his lead is cut to 32 seconds.
The first 80 kilometres of today’s stage saw little action as any riders that attempted to break away were swallowed by the peloton. It was at the Kilmore Category 3 climb when the first major break occurred. Seventeen riders, including Bagdonas and his closest rivals at the start of the day, Oleksander Sheydyk (Ukraine ISD Lampre) and Nikolay Mihaylov (France AIX en Provence), went clear. Sean Downey (Ireland Team Skoda) was also part of the group, which became eighteen when former yellow jersey holder Shane Archbold (New Zealand National Team) bridged the gap from the peloton.
Several more riders made it to the front, including Bagdonas’ An Post Sean Kelly team mate Sam Bennett, who was racing on his native county roads for the first time this year. This group of thirty ploughed on until 63 kilometres from home where Bialoblocki, Pakhtusov, Sybrandy and Australian Lachlann Norris (Australia Drapac Cycling) broke free. A puncture then meant Norris left the three others to ride out remainder of the stage together.
When they reached the final climb up the town’s main street Bialoblocki had the most left in his legs and he crossed the line to huge applause. Though the loudest cheer of all was for the first Irishman home, as crowd favourite Sean Downey’s huge effort saw him take seventh place.
Although Bagdonas had 44 seconds taken off his lead, he was delighted to hold onto the yellow jersey after his toughest stage yet, while he also reserved special praise for Bennett.
Bagdonas said: 'In the last eight kilometres I had to try and make back time. It was so hard today. Sam Bennett really helped me, and maybe if it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t wear yellow. He was really strong.'
