Yannis Yssaad (France Armée de Terre) attacked late to claim stage six of An Post Rás in Donegal town today. The 23-year-old sprinted to the line to give the French team their first stage win of the week.
Yssaad had the legs to edge out stage one winner Nicolai Brøchner Nielsen (Denmark Riwal Platform Cycling) who finished second and green jersey holder (points classification) leader Dennis Bakker (Netherlands Delta Cycling) in third. Stage four winner Matthew Teggart (An Post Chain Reaction) came home best of the Irish in seventh place.
Day six of the race took the riders south of Dungloe through craggy mountains and sweeping fields. At 132.1 kilometers, the stage was the second shortest of the week but by far the hilliest, featuring seven categorised climbs and one An Post prime at Dunkineely.
Six riders went clear early on, including stage winner from 2016, Eoin Morton (Ireland National Team) and two Irish county riders, Cormac McGeough and Christopher McGlinchey (Cycling Ulster). The first categorised climb of the day at Loughnambradden (Cat Three) went to Eoin Morton but as expected, the hills shuffled up the order with the peloton catching up with the leaders to establish a lead group of fifty riders.
Coming up to the second categorised climb, it was here that Przemyslaw Kasperkiewicz (Ireland An Post Chain Reaction) broke away to make his mark on the mountains, going clear on the climb of Glengesh (Cat One), Altclogh (Cat Three), Maeenavaghran (Cat Two), Cashling (Cat Three) and Kilcar (Cat Three). His superb climbing ensured he finished the day as King of the Mountains.
With 20 kilometres to go and the peloton following Kasperkiewicz on the climbs, an attack from Sean McKenna (Ireland An Post Chain Reaction) and Dennis Bakker (Netherlands Delta Cycling) saw the race heat up. McKenna took the An Post prime at Dunkineely while Jonas Jørgensen claimed the final climb of the day at Drumbeagh (Cat Three). It was a true sprint to the line, with a big chase group full of fire power, able to fight to the end. In the final stages, it was Yannis Yssaad who had the legs to take the win.
Following his exciting sprint finish, Yssaad said:
“The stage was very hard. I am not a climber, I am a sprinter! I waited to sprint at the end because I knew that was my strongest point. I am delighted that I got this win for the team!”
It was another great day for James Gullen, rolling in at twenty fifth to keep hold of the yellow jersey (general classification) coming into day seven:
“It was an amazing stage for me, I had to do so little today. The lads just rode phenomenally for me. We had all four riding right up to 20km to go. We tried to neutralise the climbs by riding at high tempo.”
Daire Feeley (Galway Team iTap) remains the best of the county riders and tops the county rider table while Michael O’Loughlin (Britain Team Wiggins) heads the Under 23 table.
Regular updates and action footage of this year’s An Post Rás are available on www.anpostras.ie, twitter.com/anpostras and also on www.facebook.com/anpostras
