Ciarán Power rolls back the years in An Post Rás

Taco van der Hoorn of the Dutch Join-S de Rijke squad won yesterday’s opening stage of the An Post Rás on a day that saw 40-year old ex-Irish Olympian Ciarán Power roll back the years and barrel in for a mighty result of his own.

While Van der Hoorn (22) deserves much of the plaudits for attacking the peloton inside the final 15 kilometres and holding on all the way to the line in Multyfarnham, Co. Westmeath, Power was 16th and took the blue jersey as best county rider.

The Waterford man has won the race twice in the past (1998 and 2002) but retired at the end of 2008, only to make a comeback in last year in order to lose weight.

“I was saying to win a county rider prize was my goal for the Rás so that’s done and dusted and we can relax now and enjoy the rest of the week,” he laughed at the finish as he was swarmed by friends and family.

“I’m delighted with that, I know what I can do and I know what I can’t do. I was out of the sport for a number of years after I retired and just piled on the weight.

“So I set myself a goal last October of doing the Rás. I was 112 kilos and little by little I trimmed down. I’ve been sick lately and couldn’t train for the last two weeks but I was better this week and I knew my only chance of a result yesterday was in the sprint,” he added.

With just one category three climb around the midway point, Power crested that with the main bunch after a small but strong break had went clear just beforehand.

Eoin Morton (Dublin UCD Fitzcycles) and Bryan McCrystal (Louth Asea Wheelworx) instigated the move and they were joined by George Fowler (Britain NFTO Pro Cycling), Ronan

McLaughlin (Ireland national team) and Sean Lacey (Cork Aquablue).

Morton was first over the climb which meant he ended the day in the King of the Mountains jersey and his day got even better when Patrick Gamper (Austria Tirol Cycling) and Marcus Christie (Louth Asea Wheelworx) bridged across to give them some added firepower and make it seven up front.

However, with 25 kilometres to go they were caught as JLT0Condor, NFTO and Denmark’s Riwal Platform all put the hammer down to bring them back.

Wouter Mol (Netherlands Join-S De Rijke) and Daire Feeley (Galway Team iTap) were next to attack but with the bunch hot on their heels, they never had any significant time gap and were hauled back.

James Gullen (Britain Pedal Heaven) and Alexis Dulin (France AVC Aix en Provence) had one last throw of the dice and pulled clear, provoking a 13-man chase group pull clear of the bunch, which split because of a crash inside the final 20 kilometres.

Power was among the Irish riders who made it through, while Jack Wilson (An Post Chainreaction) and Eddie Dunbar (Irish National team) were also present.

Van der Hoom (Join-S de Rijke squad) attacked on the run-in to the finish to take the win with Dylan Kennett (New Zealand) in second just behind him and Rasmus Mygind (Denmark Riwal Platform) rounding out the podium.

The stage winner is the first yellow jersey of the race, with a six-second cushion over Kennett.

The young Kiwi runner-up today now holds the U23 classification lead and Taco van der Hoom leads the points classification. Today’s stage takes the riders on a monstrous 183-kilometre trek from Multyfarnham to Charleville and there are two categorised climbs.