O’Loughlin celebrates career highlight in Galway
Mayoman David O’Loughlin crowned one of the highlights of his career with a stunning stage win in the FBD Insurance Rás into Oughterard, Co Galway today.
O’Loughlin, riding for the An Post Sean Kelly team, claimed only his second ever stage win in the race and it was clearly all the sweeter that he won it on home turf, passing through his homeland of Cong en route.
He bested British rider Simon Richardson (Britain Sigmasport Specialised) to the line, the very rider who beat him into Skibbereen, Co Cork on a stage two years ago. Fredrik Johansson (Sweden - Team Sprocket Pro) was third, just one second back.
The result sees no change at the top of the General Classification (GC) where Dan Craven of the Britain Rapha Condor Sharp team holds a slender seven-second advantage over Mark McNally (Belgium An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly).
Kit Gilham (Britain Sigmasport Specialized) is in third place, a further 11 seconds back but following today’s stage, O’Loughlin moves up to 9th on GC and will once again be one of the favourites for the yellow jersey as the week progresses.
Today’s stage was a hilly 171km journey from Carrick-on-Shannon to Oughterard featuring the category three ascent of Gowlaun (km 137.2) above Lough Nafooey plus the tougher, second category Tir na Cille (km 150.9).
“This was going to be stage where the race was going to break up,” Race organiser Dermot Dignam predicted. “I knew there would be a breakaway group as there were a lot of heavy roads and plenty of opportunity for riders to escape up the road and disappear out of sight.
“This was a stage suited for a breakaway group, followed by a couple of chasing groups and then the bunch, which will lose some time.”
It panned out precisiely as he predicted as four riders, namely 2009 race winner Simon Richardson (Britain Sigmasport Specialized), Wouter Sybrandy (Britain Sigmasport Specialised), David O'Loughlin (Belgium An Post Sean Kelly) and Fredrik Johansson (Sweden - Team Sprocket Pro).
Behind, a furious chase ensued, led by the Rapha Condor team but they were unsuccessful in their attempt to reel in the break and finished 20 seconds behind. Further back were several chase groups as well as the main bunch, some up to half an hour behind, clearly underlining the hardship endured on the road.
Tomorrow's is another long stage, a 169km trek from Oughterard to Tipperary.
