Three Juniors take on grueling Road Race in Montreal
Three Irish riders were in action on the fourth day of racing at the UCI Road World Championships in Montreal.
The 157 strong field took on the 134km course, with 2,690 metres of climbing. The ten lap race saw riders shelled out the back almost immediately, with the first climb starting just past the first corner.
Freddie Winkley was Ireland’s highest finisher taking 46th place, with second year junior Hugh Óg Mulhearne taking 70th. Rían McCrystal saw his debut World Championship road race come to premature end. A mechanical after 5km put him out the back of the peleton, and despite trying to chase back for several laps, McCrystal never it made it back on.
Winkley reflected on the race afterwards; “It was pretty tough, it was quite hard from the start. I was feeling okay but I couldn’t really get my positioning right and ended up yo-yoing off the back in the second half of the race, and with like two [laps] to go I just blew the lights”
Mulhearne, racing his first ever Worlds, added: “That was definitely a tough day out – a battle of survival all day. I felt like I just had one speed all day – on the longer climb I was quite happy with myself, then the problem on the two shorter, punchier climbs I couldn’t punch out over them. I was just dieseling all day. Look, it’s definitely not what I was hoping for this morning but there’s no point dwelling on it or making excuses, you just have to move forward.”
Five Irish riders are in action tomorrow. Liam O’Brien, Adam Rafferty, David Gaffney and Seth Dunwoody ride the U23 Men’s race in the morning, followed by Emer Heverin in the Junior Women’s race in the afternoon.