Due to Irish Bank deciding not to race the NC this year we have only 6 riders spread on 5 teams at the start of the Irish Championships with Pendleton's being the only team with 2 riders.
Time Trial
On paper this should go to Downey with Roche, Martin and Brammeier battling for the final spots on the podium.
Brammeier is the first of the four on the course so he gets to set the early reference time.
40'17'' is his time at the halfway stage.
Roche is 27 seconds slower at this point.
Daniel Martin three seconds slower than Brammeier after having been a second faster on the first time-check!
Downey only 6 seconds faster halfway throughh the race. This could be a lot closer than expected.
With everyone past the 3rd time check:
Brammeier finishes in 1h13'20.
Roche a massive 46 seconds slower.
Martin finishes in the same time as Brammeier after a strong last quarter.
No one could prevent Downey from defending his title though.
With a mountanous route Roche and Martin stands out as favourites, but with no helpers it's an impossible race to control for anyone.
Deignan with the first attack. He is not a bad climber either so the others should be careful about letting him go free.
At first Roche closes the gap, but then him, Martin and Downey starts looking at each other and the three others go away.
At the top of the first climb it's Deignan and Lavery with just over a minute to a struggling Brammeier and a futher 9'40 to the remaining three.
Brammeier reconnects with Laverey and Deignan at the foot of the second climb while Roche/Martin/Downey is 14'30 behind. It's now or never for the big favourites.
They decided on now and at the span of the seconds climb Martin and Roche closes the gap in collaboration. Downey is gone for good it seems.
No one wants to take charge of the peloton as they rider the entire descent side-by-side.
5 km to go. Brammeier and Deignan is at it again.
Surely Martin/Roche will react this time?
Not really no. Still to busy watching each other while Deignan would see Brammeier getting dropped if he looked back.
Halfway up the final climb Deignan has a 47 second gap on Brammeier and a further 1'39 to the rest, where Downey proves the dull racing by getting back in the group.
Roche is doing all the work in this group. If you can call that work...
The breakers just keep on expanding their advantages.
A grand solo win for Deignan. He was the strongest of those who bothered.
Martin and Roche almost takes a piss on the fans by actually sprinting for 3rd after having done nothing else non the final climb.
Martin did the least amount of work all day and easily takes the bronze.
