Patrick Casey, the newly minted Irish junior road race champion, is continuing his dream season in Europe; winning the second stage of Ain Bugey Valromey Tour, which is sometimes billed as the junior Tour de France.
The Team GRENKE-Auto Eder rider was by far the strongest in the final of today’s 130km stage from Beaupont to Le Plateau d’Hauteville, animating the final 20km after he got clear with about 20km to go.
And though only one rider made the move with the 18-year-old, Casey sensed his chance and really seized it with both hands before finishing the job ruthlessly at the finish.
The rider he was with, Belgium’s Jenthe Verstraete (Crabbé-Dstny U19) rode as honestly as he could over the final 20km in the two-man move but was very clearly no match for Casey.
The Irish rider spent the longest periods at the front of their breakaway move, and was doing what were clearly the hardest pulls. However, to his credit, Verstraete continued to contribute to the workload all the way to the finish.
He did so as a chase group formed behind the two leaders and began closing in on them as the finished neared in what was an undulating finale. But once the line came into sight, Casey proved the strongest and took the stage victory by two seconds from the Belgian.
Just 15 seconds behind Casey, Canada’s Adam Smith (LM Mix Team) led in the three-man chasing group from Australia’s Lucas Stevenson (Cannibal-Victorious) and Hungary’s Tamás Hancz (Cannibal-Victorious), with another three chasers just a few more seconds back.
The bunch, containing junior world road race champion and yellow jersey, Albert Philipsen (Tscherning Cycling Academy) finished exactly one minute behind Casey, with Austrian Philipsen winning the sprint for 9th some 24 hours after taking victory from a breakaway on stage 1.
Today, Irish rider David Gaffney (Team 31 Jolly Cycles) finished in the bunch, which numbered just 45 riders, while compatriot Sam Coleman (U19 Academy Région Sud powered by Giant) was 78th at 7:21.
Gaffney and Casey finished yesterday’s opening stage in the bunch, some 1:01 down – in 41st and 44th – while Coleman was 66th at 3:25. Casey time gains today saw him shoot up the general classification to 3rd.
On a great day for his team, his German team mate Paul Fietzke was one of the riders in the second chasing group today. And that meant he took the yellow jersey from Philipsen by 21 seconds, with Casey just a further second back now in 3rd with three stages remaining.
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