Cassidy realises dream by winning FBD Rás stage

Irish rider Mark Cassidy (Belgium An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly) realised a childhood dream today in Kilcullen when he won the penultimate stage seven of this year's FBD Insurance Rás.

Sat, 29 May, 2010 - 18:03

The 25-year-old Meath man is the son of two-time winner Philip Cassidy and now in his third year as a professional with the Belgium-based team.

Today he was quickest to the line, going clear in an early break and then pushing on ahead with Jakob Steigmiller (Germany Thuringer Energie) before outsprinting the same rider to the line in front of a huge crowd in Kilcullen.

The duo had approximately a minute to spare on a large chasing group by the finish line.

The win was his first ever in the Rás and marks his return to success in the race, two years after he crashed out heavily while wearing the yellow jersey.

It has so far been a good week for the An Post Sean Kelly team after David O’Loughlin won Tuesday’s stage into Oughterard, the same rider is currently in possession of the pink jersey for King of the Mountains while Connor McConvey wears the white jersey for best U-23 rider.

Overnight leader Alexander Wetterhall (Sweden Team Sprocket) had a tough day again, being under relentless attack from all of his main rivals, but he retained the yellow jersey and - barring a travesty - he should hold onto it.

The penultimate leg of the race left Gorey today in wet conditions covered 151 mountainous kilometres from there to Kilcullen.

Scaling some of the biggest climbs in Wicklow, the riders scaled the category one climbs of Drumgoff (km 100.7) and Wicklow Gap (km 115.2), the second category Slieve Corragh (km 129.6) and then the third category ramp in Tober (km 135.8).

The accumulated fatigue of seven day’s racing clearly took its toll with a noticeably slower first hour of racing.

However as soon as the riders reached the mountains, things began to split up and following a series of unsuccessful attacks, Cassidy and Steigmiller finally managed to break clear and build up a commanding lead.

At one stage their lead stretched to over three minutes, threatening Wetterhall’s grip on the yellow jersey.

However, the latter’s team (Sweden - Team Sprocket Pro) worked extremely hard at the front of the bunch and they managed to limit the time lost, thus ensuring Wetterhall is still in yellow heading into the final day, albeit by a mere eight seconds.

RESULTS

Stage 7 Gorey to Kilcullen 151 kms

1. Cassidy,Mark (Belgium An Post Sean Kelly)

2. Steigmiller,Jakob (Germany Thuringer Energie)

3. May,Maximillan (Germany Thuringer Energie)

Overall Classification

1. Wetterhall,Alexander (Sweden - Team Sprocket Pro)

2. Kugler,Josef @ 8 secs (Arbö KTM-Gebrüder Weis)

3. Williams,Peter @59 secs (Motorpoint Marshalls Pasta)

4. Anderson,John @ 1 min 28 secs (Sweden - Team Sprocket Pro)

5. Craven,Dan @ 1 min 32 secs (Britain Rapha Condor Sharp)

IRISH