Dutch cyclist and speedskater Loes Adegeest (Jan van Arckel) triumphed at the end of stage two of Rás na mBan on Thursday, winning a four-woman sprint into Piltown.
Adegeest got the better of Abi Smith (GB National Team), Alice Sharpe (Ireland National Team) and Anna Shackley (GB National Team) in the gallop to the line, while Wednesday's opening stage winner and overnight race leader Kaia Schmid (LUX Cycling) led the bunch in 35 seconds later.
The 89.5-kilometre stage started in Kilkenny and took in two ascents of the category two climb of Templeorum. The day’s winning move went after the first ascent, with the quartet of riders opening a lead of over one minute and having enough in hand to hold on to the line.
There, Smith was runner-up for the second day in a row but took over race leadership. She is level on time with the leading Irish rider Sharpe, as well as Shackley and Adegeest. The race continues on Friday with the longest stage, a tough 1040kilometre race from Castlecomer Discovery Park to the top of The Cut in Co Laois.
Meanwhile, Nicolas Roche and Dan Martin were both held up as a result of a crash at the end of stage five of the Tour of Britain. The Irish duo placed 45th and 55th respectively behind the stage winner Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers), who won a small group sprint ahead of Giacomo Nizzolo (Team Qhubeka Assos) and Daniel McLay (Team Arkea-Samsic).
The delayed riders were all given the same time as the stage winner as the incident happened within the final three kilometres. Hayter retakes the overall lead as a result of the 10-second time bonus for winning the stage. Martin remains seventh overall and is one minute and four seconds back. Roche stays 11th and is a further 42 seconds behind.
In Italy, Ryan Mullen finished 18th in the elite time-trial at the European championships, two minutes and ten seconds behind the winner Stefan Küng (Switzerland).
“It definitely wasn’t one of my better performances today,” said Mullen. “Some days you have a good day and some days you have a bad day and today was an exceptionally bad day, as it turns out. I just kind of blew up in the headwinds sections after about 10 minutes and I couldn’t quite get back on top of the gear.”
National time-trial champion Conn McDunphy was also in action. He finished 32 seconds behind Mullen in 29th place. Kevin McCambridge and Aaron Wade were 26th and 38th respectively in the under-23 time-trial, which was won by Johan Price Pejtersen (Denmark).
The championships continue on Friday with the first of the road races. Ireland has a total of 10 entrants spread across the events for junior men, junior women and under-23 women.
Rás na mBan
Stage 2 Kilkenny to Piltown: 1 Loes Adegeest (Jan van Arckel) 89.5 kilometres in 2 hours 18 mins 47, 2 A Smith (GB National Team), 3 A Sharpe (Ireland National Team), 4 A Shackley (GB National Team), 5 K Schmid (LUX Cycling) at 35, 6 J Tindley (Pro-Noctis-Redchilli Bikes-Heidi Kjeldsen), 7 M MacPherson (LUX Cycling), 8 K Murphy (Ireland National Team) all same time
Young riders: 1 Abi Smith (GB National Team) 2 hours 18 mins 47, 2 A Shackley (GB National Team) same time, 3 K Schmid (LUX Cycling) at 35
Team: 1 Ireland National Team 6 hours 57 mins 31, 2 LUX Cycling at 44, 3 GB National Team at 2 mins 55, 4 Jan van Arckel at 7 mins, 5 Team LDN - Brother UK at 7 mins 35
General classification after stage 2: 1 Abi Smith (GB National Team) 4 hours 4 mins 14, 2 A Sharpe (Ireland National Team), 3 A Shackley (GB National Team), 4 L Adegeest (Jan van Arckel) all same time, 5 K Schmid (LUX Cycling) at 35, 6 M MacPherson (LUX Cycling), 7 D Shrosbree (Team LDN - Brother UK), 8 N Grinczer (CAMS-Basso) all same time
Points classification: 1 Abi Smith (GB National Team) 18 points, 2 K Schmid (LUX Cycling) 16, 3 A Sharpe (Ireland National Team) 13, 4 L Adegeest (Jan van Arckel) 10, 5 M MacPherson (LUX Cycling) 10
Queen of the Hills classification: 1 Jo Tindley (Pro-Noctis-Redchilli Bikes-Heidi Kjedlsen) 17 points, 2 A Shackley (GB National Team) 16, 3 A Sharpe (Ireland National Team) 10, 4 L Adegeest (Jan van Arckel) 10, 5 A Smith (GB National Team) 3
Best Irish county rider: 1 Kelly Linda (Cycling Munster) 4 hours 8 mins 29, 2 O Walsh (UCD) at 2 mins 12, 3 B Woods (Cycling Munster) at 4 mins 14, 4 E Tutty (Women's Cycling Ireland A) at 5 mins 32, 5 C McCarthy (Women's Cycling Ireland A) at 5 mins 47
Young riders: 1 Abi Smith (GB National Team) 4 hours 4 mins 14, 2 A Shackley (GB National Team) same time, 3 K Schmid (LUX Cycling) at 35
Team classification: 1 Ireland National Team 12 hours 13 mins 52, 2 LUX Cycling at 44, 3 GB National Team at 2 mins 55, 4 CAMS-Basso at 7 mins 35, 5 Pro-Noctis-Redchilli Bikes-Heidi Kjeldsen same time
Paddy Doran best Irish team classification: 1 Cycling Munster 12 hours 46 mins 55, 2 Women's Cycling Ireland A at 20, 3 UCD at 1 min 48, 4 Women's Cycling Ireland B at 23 mins 50
Tour of Britain (2.Pro)
Stage 5, Alderley Park to Warrington: 1 Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers) 152.2 kilometres in 3 hours 33 mins 1, 2 G Nizzolo (Team Qhubeka Assos), 3 D McLay (Team Arkea-Samsic), 4 L Lamperti (Trinity Racing), 5 M Cavendish (Deceuninck-QuickStep), 6 C Joyce (Rally Cycling) all same time
Irish: 45 N Roche (Team DSM), 55 D Martin (Israel Start-up Nation) both same time, 75 R Townsend (Canyon DHB Sungod) at 1 min 33, 95 B Healy (Trinity Racing) at 4 mins 3
General classification after stage 5: 1 Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers) 18 hours 17 mins 42, 2 W Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) at 8, 3 J Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) at 19, 4 M Honoré (Deceuninck-QuickStep) at mins 29, 5 M Woods (Israel Start-up Nation) at 48
Irish: 7 D Martin (Israel Start-up Nation) at 1 min 4, 11 N Roche (Team DSM) at 1 min 46, 33 R Townsend (Canyon DHB Sungod) at 5 mins 50, 66 B Healy (Trinity Racing) at 22 mins 43
Points classification: 1 Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers) 52, 2 J Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) 41 3 W Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) 30
Irish: 9 R Townsend (Canyon DHB Sungod) 21
Mountains classification: Jacob Scott (Canyon DHB Sungod) 57
Sprints classification: Jacob Scott (Canyon DHB Sungod) 26
Teams classification: 1 Ineos Grenadiers 54 hours 14 mins 7, 2 Alpecin-Fenix at 1 min 56, 3 Team DSM at 2 mins 44
Other: 6 Israel Start Up Nation at 3 mins 27, 10 Canyon dhb SunGod at 7 mins
European road championships, Trento, Italy
Elite time-trial: 1 Stefan Küng (Switzerland) 22.4 kilometres in 24 mins 29, 2 F Ganna (Italy) at 8, 3 R Evenepoel (Belgium) at 15, 4 S Bissegger (Switzerland) at 23, 5 M Walscheid (Germany) at 38
Other: 18 R Mullen (Ireland) at 2 mins 10, 29 C McDunphy (Ireland) at 2 mins 42
U23 time-trial: 1 Johan Price Pejtersen (Denmark) 22.4 kilometres in 25 mins 35, 2 S Waerenskjold (Norway) at 33, 3 D Hoole (Netherland) at 34, 4 M Hessmann (Germany) at 38, 5 L Gonov (Russia) at 41
Other: 26 K McCambridge (Ireland) at 1 min 57, 38 A Wade (Ireland) at 3 mins 11
