Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe) took his maiden senior Irish National Road Race Championship as he saw off the challenge of Eddie Dunbar (Team Ineos) in the final dash to the line in Derry on Sunday.
Bennett's show of power was the final act in a three days of road and time trial racing.
The men’s senior road race was run off in dry weather over a reduced distance of seven laps of a challenging 21km circuit decided the destination of the final 2019 Irish National Road Race Championships medals.
After a number of early splits a four-rider move established itself up front with pre-event favourites Sam Bennett of Bora-Hansgrohe and Team Ineos’s Eddie Dunbar joined by locally based rider Mark Dowling, Darragh O'Mahony of CC Nogent-sur-Oise.
O’Mahony dropped back as Dowling hung in doggedly with World Tour pros Bennett and Dunbar and this trio dominated proceedings as chase groups formed and reformed behind.
The distance finally its toll on Dowling who dropped back on the final lap as national time trial champion Ryan Mullen (Trek Segafredo) made a bid to close the gap to the leaders.
There was no catching Bennett and Dunbar who were together hitting the final climb to the finish line on Shipquay Street where Bennett unleashed his world class sprint to power up the final drag. The Carrick-on-Suir man finally took a first senior road race title to add to the junior title he won in 2008.
For Dunbar it's a repeat of the silver medal he won in Omagh in 2015 while for 2017 title winner Mullen, it was a successful to conclusion to a busy week in the North West.
"Amazing," Bennett said afterwards. "I don’t think it’s sunk in yet. I’m just really proud. The last two laps I was starting to get twitches of cramp and I tried to bluff it because Eddie was super strong and it felt like, in fairness to Eddie, that he was doing most of the pulling in the last two laps.
"He didn’t even give out to me. I owe him one. I owe him a big one. If he got away, I was happy for him to take it but I don’t know when this opportunity will come again.
"Eddie’s so young, he’s got such an engine, I’m sure he’s going to get (a chance) in the future but I thought, for me, it’s now or never."
