PATRICK BEVIN TOOK his second stage win of this year’s An Post Rás after outsprinting the 2013 winner Marcin Bialoblocki and Peter Williams in a nail-biting finish.
Stage 4 — Charleville to Cahirciveen — was deemed, by many in the field, to be the toughest of the race. There were 10 categorised climbs over 183km but Bevin had enough in the tank to blitz home over the final 200 metres.
Heading out of Castleisland, just over 70km into the stage, a dozen riders broke free. Three Irishmen were part of the group — Eugene Moriarty, Ronan McLaughlin and Patrick Clarke — and a gap of two minutes from the peloton opened up.
Bevin and his New Zealand teammates began to eat into the time deficit and cut it in half by the time they were approaching the stage’s final climb. Owain Doull and Alessandro Pettiti looked to have done enough to duke it out for the stage win but Bevin and a chasing pack of 40 cyclists swallowed them up with less than four kilometres to go. Alex Peters made a dart but he was chased down and Bevin took the stage win after an all-out sprint finish.
After paying credit to his teammates, Bevin commented, “Going over the last climb I was at the front of the bunch and I just took it step by step. I managed to catch one group, then another and I just found myself right up the front and at that stage I just couldn’t help but go for the stage win.”
Further details of the Rás can be found here.
