Windy sprint to end stage 4
March 23rd, 2008 by Ricky BlayneyNo photos today . . . Photographer Eric Blayney was on marshalling duty for todays race.
It was hardly a sprint to end all sprints but it was a windy day to end all windy days. At least thats what it felt like out at Dixon road on the East side of Bangor. A freezing wind was blowing across the home straight and right off the Irish Sea that must have made racing conditions tricky throughout. A number of riders tried attacking throughout the stage but the wind was never going to let anything serious work and it came down to a sprint finish. Again the wind played a factor in that and the crowd gathered at the line were not treated to a classic.
I did notice they had mat’s laid on the ground to count the riders in and assess them all with a time each, thanks to the chip placed on their wheels. I’ve never seen this before and was amazed to see the Tour of the North go so high tech. The strips only covered half the road and so the police motorbike had to stop in the middle of the road to force the sprinters heading to the line to cross the strips. Thankfully nobody sprinted with their heads down and so nobody ran into the back of the police bike. The freezing wind was bad enough without a mass pile-up on the line.
Earlier in the day there was a short time-trial they called stage 4. It was only a 4-mile burst up the peninsula from Donagadee to Bangor but it seen a change in the GC. It was won by Ryan Connor on a time of 9:37. All the big names came in the top 20 as expected though day one winner and second place in overall, Belgian, Tom Vanbecelaere was the big loser. Although he came in 19th place some 52-seconds behind Connor losing his yellow jersey.
As for who actually won the afternoon race? The sprint may not have been a classic but it was good enough to make it a tough call to make on who actually won. Well I wasn’t quite sure as they shot across the line, but Ryan Connor certainly retained his yellow jersey as he came in at the back of the pack losing little to no time overall. It took until I got home and logged onto the net before I could see who actually took the win. In the end it turned out to be a tie of all calls. I was in the bookies that morning and the odds on a tie on the line were so good I was tempted to put a couple of quid on. I didn’t however, I put the couple of quid on Liverpool to beat Manchester United and we’ll end this paragraph there.
Gregory Demunster of the De Cock team from Belgium and Simon Chasseloup of French team La Rouche Sur Yonne were credited with the victory ahead of Irishman Simon Kelly.
Below is a list of the results from both stages of the top five and also the top twenty overall.
RESULTS
Stage 3 1 Ryan Connor Pezula 09:37 2 Martyn Irvine Pezula + 06 3 Sean Downey Ireland Juniors + 10 4 Jimmy Wright Team Madigan + 16 5 Fergus Ryan McNally-Swords CC + 18 Stage 4 1= Gregory Demunster De Cock Capino Belgium 2:05:19 1= Simon Chasseloup VC La Roche Sur Yonne + st 3 Simon Kelly Usher-Irish Road Club + 01 4 Aaron Buggle Ireland Juniors + 02 5 Geir BisGaard Usher-Irish Road Club + 03 OVERALL 1 Ryan Connor Pezula 5:13:37 2 Tom Vanbecelaere De Cock Capino Belgium + 40 3 Sean Downey Ireland Juniors + 1:10 4 Adam Armstrong Pezula + 2:25 5 Sam Bennett Ireland Juniors + 2:52 6 Glen Kinning Castleregh CC-Mattest + 3:18 7 Peter Hawkins Usher-Irish Road Club + 3:25 8 Roger Aiken Castleregh CC-Mattest + 4:12 9 Martyn Irvine Pezula + 5:53 10 Gerard van Dijk WV De Kannibaal + 7:19
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