BikeNZ rider claims stage victory at Ras Tour of Ireland

New Zealand’s Myron Simpson made the most of a daring break to claim victory in stage five of the An Post Ras Cycling Tour of Ireland today.

Simpson, who competed at the Commonwealth Games, is part of the BikeNZ endurance track squad who are supported by Trek International to compete on the roads in Europe in preparation for next year’s campaign towards the London Olympics.

The Auckland rider was part of a five-man break in the 152km stage from Castletownbere to Blarney on the south-western coast of Ireland. He jumped clear with 3km remaining, holding off the fast finishing peloton by just four seconds when he held his arms aloft to celebrate the stage win.

It proved an outstanding day for the BikeNZ team with three riders on the podium. Simpson celebrated his first UCI Tour victory, fellow Aucklander Aaron Gate leads the overall Under-23 honours and is fifth on general classification while Shane Archbold wears the sprint leader’s jersey. He closed to within one point in the race for sprint jersey from Lithuania’s Gediminas Bagdonas who retained the overall leader’s yellow jersey.

“I didn’t think we would be able to stay away,” Simpson said. “One of our group went for it across the top of the climb and so our speed remained quite high trying to catch him. We eventually caught him with 5km to go and he went again. I jumped across to him with 3km to go and just put my head down and got further and further clear.

“The roads were narrow with some corners so I was able to hold off the bunch.

“With 300m to go I knew I had got it. As soon as I saw the line I threw my arms in the air and celebrated. It’s my first big win so I was pretty stoked.”

In fact Simpson would also have been in the fight for the overall lead but for an ill-timed comfort stop yesterday.

“I was unlucky. When I got back on I got stuck behind some slower riders on the climb and we got gaped.”

There was no change at the top of the order with Gate the best placed of the kiwis in fifth, just 1m31s down on the lead, with coach Stu MacDonald confident they can contest the overall honours despite losing the experienced Marc Ryan with a knee ailment today.

“We are the strongest overall team here now. Aaron is only just over a minute off the lead so I think we will plot to have a real crack at the yellow jersey over the next two days. And Shane is still itching for a sprint win and that points jersey,” MacDonald said.

Tomorrow’s sixth stage is 172kms with six climbs along the south coast of Ireland to Tramore.

The eight-day race includes 185 riders from 12 international teams along with a host of British and Irish teams battling over 1247 kilometres with 28 categorised climbs.

Results:

Ras Tour of Ireland, Stage 5, 162km Castletownbere to Blarney: Myron Simpson (NZL) 3:42:44, 1; Tobyn Horton (GBR, Britain Motorpoint) at 4 seconds, 2; Burgel Bastian (GER) same time, 3. Also New Zealanders: Shane Archbold same time, 6; Aaron Gate same time, 7; Cameron Karwowski same time, 47; Marc Ryan withdrew.

General classification: Gediminas Bagdonas (LTU, An Post Sean Kelly) 20:22:03, 1; Sheydyk Olek (Ukraine Lampre) at 1:16, 2; Nikolay Mihaylov (Bulgaria) same time, 3; Peter Williams (GBR) at 1:27, 4; Aaron Gate (NZL) at 1:31, 5. Also: Shane Archbold (NZL) at 2:17, 8; Myron Simpson (NZL) at 15:19, 33; Karwowski at 24:03, 46.

Under 23: Gate 20:23:34, 1; Archbold at 46s, 2; S Downey (IRE) at 2:17, 3.

Points: Bagdonas 51 points, 1; Archbold 00, 2; T Horton (GBR) 35, 3. Also: Gate 26, 5.