Following on from their national record-shattering ride on Wednesday en route to eighth in qualification, the Irish team pursuit squad finished eighth overall in the track world championships in Berlin on Thursday. The quartet of Mia Griffin, Kelly Murphy, Alice Sharpe and Lara Gillespie were up against Australia in the next round of the competition but finished second there. This meant they missed out on a place in Thursday evening’s medal finals.
They recorded a time of four minutes 21.844 seconds, only slightly off the record they set on Wednesday. The team has the encouragement of making a significant improvement over the past 12 months, going almost eight seconds quicker than their time in last year’s championships. This is of considerable motivation heading towards the Tokyo Olympics.
Later on Thursday, Felix English rode aggressively in the men’s scratch race. He was part of a big move by several riders early on to try to gain a lap, but these were hauled back. Several others subsequently gained a lap and one of those, the Belarusian Yauheni Karaliok, took the gold medal. English finished a solid 11th.
Lydia Boylan will compete in the women’s Omnium on Friday, while Mark Downey will ride the men’s points race.
In the United Arab Emirates, Eddie Dunbar finished 13th on Thursday’s mountain stage of the UAE Tour and ended the day 11th overall in the general classification. The finishing climb of Jebel Hafeet was first used earlier this week on stage two, where Dunbar finished 10th. He had hoped to equal or better that performance on Thursday, but was a little off that target.
“It felt easier today as there was a tailwind and the temperature was down, so it made climbing easier,” he explained afterwards.
“A lot more guys were feeling better and you could see that the GC [general classification] group was bigger as when we got to six kilometres to go, there were still 20-25 guys in the lead group. That said a lot about conditions compared to last time.
“The guys did a really good job again, putting me in a good position and keeping me out of trouble all day. I did what I could but with 1.5km to go my legs went and I lost a bit of time.”
He crossed the line 48 seconds behind the winner Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates), who outsprinted Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Pro Team) and Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott). Yates continued to lead overall; Dunbar was two minutes 58 seconds back in 11th.
Two further stages of the race were due to be held Friday and Saturday, but on Thursday evening it emerged that those had been cancelled due to the Corona virus. Riders and team staff are due to be tested in the near future. Dunbar consequently finishes 11th overall, while Irish sprinter Sam Bennett loses out on the chance of chasing stage wins on the cancelled stages. He was second and fourth respectively on stages two and four.
UAE Tour, United Arab Emirates (WorldTour)
State 5, Al Ain to Jebel Hafeet: 1, Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) 162 kilometres in 3 hours 48 mins 53 secs; 2, A. Lutsenko (Astana Pro Team); 3, A. Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) both same time; 4, D. Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) at 4 secs; 5, I. Zakarin (CCC Team) at 7 secs
Irish: 13, E. Dunbar (Team Ineos) at 48 secs; 130, S. Bennett (Deceuninck-QuickStep) at 18 mins 46 secs
General classification after stage 5: 1, Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) 20 hours 35 mins 4 secs; 2, T. Poga?ar (UAE Team Emirates) at 1 min 1 sec; 3, A. Lutsenko (Astana Pro Team) at 1 min 33 secs; 4, D. Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) at 1 min 48 secs; 5, R. Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe) at 2 mins 11 secs
Irish: 11, E. Dunbar (Team Ineos) at 2 mins 58 secs; 105, S. Bennett (Deceuninck-QuickStep) at 33 mins 6 secs
Points classification: 1, Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) 43 points; 2, V. Stojnic (Vini Zabu-KTM) 42; 3, T. Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) 39
Irish: 8, S. Bennett (Deceuninck-QuickStep) 25
Youth classification: 1, Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) 20 hours 36 mins 5 secs; 2, D. Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) at 47 secs; 3, E. Dunbar (Team Ineos) at 1 min 57 secs
