Kelly and Roche are the two names one thinks of when you put cycling and Ireland together. Whilst the current crop including Stephen’s son Nicholas hardly compare there is still some roadside fans to cheer them on over todays Irish championship parcours.
Nicholas Roche should count as a main contender with his biggest rival, the current champion and his 100% Me teammate Dan Martin. These two have not had the impact for their consistent British based continental tour team and remained nearly men in the divisions surprisingly high quality punchaer line up.
Protour duo Deignan (Cafe du Columbia) and Cieran Kelly (Vesuvio) hold good claims to go well and Tim Cassidy on the biggest squad here may just sneak the moment of the year for Irish cycling winning a stage in the Volta a Portugal.
A typically windy day in Ireland caused havoc early on and the weaker riders struggled to hold the wheels of the better climbers. A power group of five formed about a third of the way into the race.
Its Martin, Roche, T Cassidy, Deignan and C. Kelly.
But these five are not able to pull away significantely and as the wind eases slightly first McConvey bridges back up and then Monks, Speirs, C Cassidy and O Loughlin get back up and so we have ten riders together with one lap of 39 km to go.
20 km to go and it’s Deignan who attacks.
Roche and Martin smoothly counter.
It seems to be these three left to decide this and Roche is wary of his teammate Martin’s slightly better kick in a sprint and decides to attack on the final climb.
But Martin does counter with Deignan following, as they crest Roche calmly slots in behind Dan Martin. This is a tactical move as Deignan stays behind Roche, it forces the champion incumbent to lead out the final sprint
It has been windy all day and the final straight is no exception, Roche leaves it until 500m to go to make his move.
300m, Deignan has nothing extra and Roche is gaining.
The star Irish duo of Nicholas Roche and Dan Martin are not really known for their Time Trialling prowess.
However the teammates do have a chance in a limited field of riders to take at least a podium. It is Steven's son Nicholas who nudges ahead of Dan Martin today against the clock.
Roche 18.37 44.23 1.09.16
Martin 18.44 47.44 1.09.45
However the expected duel for the Irish TT title is expected to be between Cafe de Colombia's Paul Healion.
and a third 100% Me competitor and defending champion David O Loughlin.
These two are clearly up for this and their splits are comfortably inside that of Roche's. But there is little to split the two, O' Loughlin seems to be edging it.
Indeed in the final part of the course the colours of being the champion incumbent seem to inspire O Loughlin to eek out a couple more seconds.
