@Danny Thanks mate, the team certainly needs it now.

@Sutty All RTE riders? No! One small rider is still battling on...

@Hoyle Could have been better indeed.

„Here we are as the peleton hits the Poggio, and you can already see the Punchers moving up. Here's a sky rider having a go, it looks like Betancur. He's being followed by Froome, this looks like a brilliant team attack by Sky, as Betancur drops back after getting Froome started up. The favourites look at each other as Froome pulls out second over second.“

„What an attack by the Tour winner, some great teamwork too. As we're near the top of the climb the gap is at half a minute, he's looking good for his first monument win here.“

„Movistar take up the pace setting in the pack. Right behind there train is Deignan, I'm surprised we didn't see anything from him on the Poggio. Maybe he's not as fresh as he appears.“

„You know Phil I don't think that's Deignan. I think that's Jack O'Connor, whom many have dubbed the next, well, me. He's more of a sprinter, so not surprised to see no attack from him. What a remarkable achievement for him to be in the front group at his first monument. Remember, he was riding with the An Post CT team just last year.“

„The gap is coming down at the hands of Jose Herrada, Froome only has 20 seconds left as we hit the flat. Still, this could well be enough. Meanwhile, Ciolek and O'Connor are the only sprinters to be seen anywhere, except for the Norwegian jersey of Kristoff somewhere at the rear end of the bunch.“

„3km to go now, and only 15 seconds remaining, this might be closer than we thought. Ciolek looks in terrific form to take a second win here. Meanwhile O'Connor is still doing well on Ciolek's back wheel.“

„Oh, and he's going early. With 2km to go, Ciolek thinks a sprint from far out is the only way he can bridge the gap to Froome who looks to be struggling a little bit now.“

„Ciolek looks like he might catch him, there's only 100 metres between the two as Froome passes under the Flamme Rouge.“

„O'Connor opens his sprint from Cioleks back wheel, it's going to be one of these three. He looks to be having a hard time keeping up with the Germans pace in the wind though. In the meantime, Froome surely only has about 50 metres on the two of them.“

„O'Connor seems to be finding his stride now, and he's slowly coming around Ciolek. I think we might be in for a major upset here Phil.“

„Froome only holds about a dozen metres as we pass the 100m to go signs, and O'Connor is coming up fast. Ciolek looks to be struggling a bit himself now, as O'Connor rounds the last corner. He can see his opponent and the finish line now, 50m to go, he's level with Froome, and he's pulling away, O'Connor did it! He won his first monument in his first try! He's the first Irishman to have won here since you Sean. Here we were wondering if he can cope with the step up to PCT level and he wins a ******* monument! Look at these scenes, you can see the tears of joy on young O'Connors face as he collapses to the ground, completely exhausted from the effort. What a day for Irish cycling!“

„I'm completely shocked, I have to admit. I knew he was talented, but I don't think anyone knew he was THAT talented. We'll have to hear from him now, right after the break.“

Selwink wrote:
How many replays did you need?

@Selwink This is the kinda win that might actually harm the story, why would I replay to get it?

Jesley & Hoyle

@Knockout Well I sure hope so. He kept his head after winning the U23 worlds, so I hope he can do it again.

@Shonak The next Sean Kelly

@TMM If you skip steps 1 & 2, you can do it in one or two replays.

Eurosport: Hello and congratulations, what a win for you there! Has it sunk in yet?
O'Connor: Hi, no, it hasn't really. I mean, winning a monument, that's just a whole new league. I don't think I've ever experienced anything like this in my life. Even winning in Ponferrada pales in comparison. As soon as I crossed the line, I just collapsed and started crying tears of joy.

Eurosport: Talk us through your win.
O'Connor: As you probably know the plan was to go for Sam, but as he was dropped, we had to change our plans. He was back there with a few other RTE guys, so the plan was to work hard to bring him back on the flat, but as that didn't work, I knew it would be up to me to fly the flag for us in our first ever WT race. I didn't think I'd have much of a chance in the sprint to be honest, but the pace over the hills was so high everyone else was just as exhausted as me. In the end, I just picked the right wheel and timed my sprint right, this time around. Kudos to Movistar, they worked hard for it, I hope they're not too angry at me ruining their party.

Eurosport: When did you know you had it in your bag?
O'Connor: As I crossed the line. I had a good feeling from when I launched my sprint, but Ciolek is just so experienced, you never know what sort of tricks he might pull out of his hat.

Eurosport: Any hard feelings between you and Sam after stealing his show?
O'Connor: No, not that I know of anyway. I'd have more than happily lead him out if he hadn't got dropped, and I was debating wether I should drop back to help him, but in the end Martin [Earley] gave me the all clear to stay up front, so I assume we're fine. At least he seemed pretty pleased as he came over to congratulate me a minute ago!

Eurosport: Thanks for the Interview and congratulations on your first monument
O'Connor: Thanks, it was a pleasure.

@Sutty Thanks x2

This was a tricky one for us. After the sudden fame that MSR had brought me, everyone was wary of my chances here. I realised I wouldn't win by surprise, ever again. But everyone around seemed happy for me, even the Movistar and Sky guys weren't too bitter. Of course a break went clear, and of course there were mid stage attackers, but neither were too strong. Vanmarcke as well as Cancellara and three of his teammates briefly slipped away with about 40km to go, but they were caught pretty easily. That's when the real race began. As Cancellara, Vanmarcke and van Keirsbulck initiated what looked like the decisive move, I was constantly inbetween the 20 man chase group and those three, never quite realising where I should be. I guess that was just the pressure of the monument win getting at me. In the end I settled down in the chase group, which heavily relied on Garmin to pull back a two man group of Van Asbroeck and Van Keirsbulck, whilste Vanmarcke and Cancellara were well clear. The group was caught eventually, and Vanmarcke won. I had hard times getting the timing of my sprint right, but finished a rather pleasing fifth in the end.