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Columbia's Mark Cavendish wins stage 1 in Ireland
Garmin-Chipotle's Julian Dean is second.
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Neither a four-man breakaway nor getting spit out on a climb could stop Columbia’s Mark Cavendish from taking a commanding sprint win in the opening stage of the Tour of Ireland. Columbia rode the front of the peloton all day, then strung it out in the rush to the flat finish along River Suir in downtown Waterford.
“My form isn’t so good out there after just getting back from Beijing, and it just shows how you need such a strong team behind you,” said Cavendish, who hails from the Isle of Man. “They rode today like always, and I think we have shown for a while now how strong we are as a team.”
The 192km stage kicked off in the heart of Dublin, then headed south over tight, winding roads and four categorized climbs.
After a stage one breakaway in last year’s inaugural Tour of Ireland largely decided the race — the overall winner came from that 10-man move — riders were on the alert for a similar move Wednesday. With the morning’s drizzle giving way to dry skies, a number of groups tried their luck before three riders made a move stick.
Travis Meyer (SouthAustralia.com-AIS), David George (MTN Energade) and Ireland’s Martyn Irvine (Pezula) got a gap going, and were soon joined by Team Type 1’s Matt Wilson, who clawed his way across. The quartet built a maximum lead of more than 7 minutes.
The hills and the stiff wind eventually took their toll, however. Irvine fell off the pace as the break ascended the mist-shrouded Cat. 1 Mount Leinster.
“I knew it was coming,” Irvine said. “I can’t climb worth anything. I can’t get over a bump in the road. I thought I could get them on the descent, but they must have really been tapping through up there.”
George came off soon after.
Meyer and Wilson kept their hopes alive and the power on, however, until about 10km to go. Wilson was rewarded for his efforts on the day with the red king of the mountains jersey.
“It’s good to come away with something,” Wilson said. “I knew that Garmin and Columbia would be going hard. I was really hoping that there would have been a few more guys that came along with us and give us a good chance of staying away.”
Wilson said he would have a good chance of keeping his red jersey, however: “I’ve got a strong team here, so I’m sure they’ll help me defend it.”
Coming into Waterford, Columbia didn’t even pretend like it was giving another team a chance to set up a lead-out train. After crossing River Suir and banking east, Columbia’s black-and-blue machine delivered Cavendish to the final 200 meters, with Garmin-Chiptole’s Julian Dean on his wheel. That was the order across the line, with Norway’s Alexander Kristoff (Joker-Bianchi) rounding out the podium.
After the stage, Cavendish said his form was off after traveling from Beijing, where he raced the Madison with Great Britain teammate Bradley Wiggins (The pair finished ninth).
“The categorized climbs weren’t so hard; it was the rolling terrain after the last categorized climb where it got really, really tricky,” Cavendish said. “The peloton split, and I actually got dropped from the front group at one point. Bernie (Eisel) had to drop back for me.”
Poor form or no, Cavendish will start stage 2 from Thurles to Loughrea in the yellow jersey. By taking second and winning the first intermediate sprint of the day, Kristoff snagged the green points jersey and leapfrogged Dean into second place on the general classification. With Cavendish leading the under-25 competition, the white jersey goes to Rabobank’s Boy Van Poppel.
