Richardson defends lead for his biggest win

CYCLING/ FBD RÁS: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. Britain's Simon Richardson defended his race lead in the FBD Rás over the weekend to take his biggest professional result yesterday afternoon in Skerries.

Prior to the start of the race team manager John Herety had said the Rapha Condor team contained five strong riders; that proved to be the case, with Richardson superbly supported by the others and finishing the eight-day, world-ranked event two minutes and 49 seconds clear of Mads Christensen (Denmark Designa Kokken). It was Herety’s fourth time managing a winning squad.

“I said it time and again that I had the strongest team in this race,” Richardson told the huge crowd in Skerries. “But even so, I still felt pressure due to the fact that the guys had spent so many kilometres on the front and worked so hard for this.

“There was a crash in the last two kilometres . . . I got caught behind it, and while we still got credited with the same time as the winner, anything could have happened. I’m very happy to have won this race.”

David McCann and David O’Loughlin were best of the home riders overall, netting eighth and 10th. O’Loughlin had hoped for more than that but got some consolation thanks to his victory in the King of the Mountains classification, which he sealed yesterday. Despite a crash early on he took maximum points on one of the day’s four climbs and was fourth in another, earning enough points to finish well clear.

“I am happy to defend the jersey and at least get something out of the race,” said O’Loughlin, who was in the crucial break last Monday but who lost contact with Richardson and Ian Wilkinson near the end. “Overall, it didn’t quite go to plan. This was a very, very difficult race to try to win.”

The home riders had an aggressive showing on the stage, with Brian Kenneally and Mark Cassidy going on the attack in separate groups once they reached the Skerries finishing circuit.

While they were unable to stay clear, Kenneally had the consolation of winning the best county rider classification, while his Meath Engraveit.ie/BDBC squad were also best county team.

Yesterday’s final stage honours went to quadruple Tour de France stage winner Jaan Kirsipuu, who beat O’Loughlin’s team-mate Niko Eeckhout and 51 others to take his second such win in the race. Best of the home riders were Paul Healion (fifth) and Sam Bennett (sixth). They took the only Irish stages wins, with Healion triumphing on Friday into Castlebar and Bennett outsprinting the peloton into Clara on Saturday.

The latter result was hugely significant as he was the youngest rider in the race at 18 years of age.

Race organiser Dermot Dignam highlighted the promise shown by him and others. “It was a superb race, and one which showed that we have tremendous potential with a number of riders, such as Sam Bennett, Stephen Halpin and Seán Downey,” he said.

“Things are looking very good.”