Jamie Meehan, the Donegal man riding for top French team CC Etupes, has taken his best result of the season in a round of the French Cup; doing so from the front with a very aggressive display.
Still aged just 20-years-old, Meehan has been one of the improvers of Irish cycling in recent years; winning bronze in the road race at the National Championships as a junior and upgrading that to gold at U23 level in Co Tyrone last year.
On his trips home to Ireland he has raced very well, especially on the hardest stages of Rás Mumhan this year and last, and now his class has outed in the French Cup, the highest level of French amateur racing.
He was 2nd in 144.5km Trophée Souvenir Roger Walkowiak-Ville de Cusset on Sunday, the third round of the French Cup. However, the manner of the result was perhaps even more impressive than his finishing position.
Competing against the best teams in France, many of them with a host of international riders on the books, Meehan came into his own in the final of the race. He got clear in a strongman’s breakaway when the pressure was on late in the day and picked the hardest parts of the course to press forward and shake off as many of his rivals as he could.
In the end he arrived at the finish in a three-man group and had to settle for 2nd place behind Australian winner Kane Richards (AC Bisontine), with Frenchman Joris Chaussinand (Bourg-en-Bresse Ain Cyclisme) in 3rd.
The leading trio finished 11 to 18 seconds up on the riders they had dropped when they breakaway they were all in split on the undulating terrain just before the finish after 3½ hours of racing in the Auvergne Rhône-Alpes region of central France.
How it unfolded
The riders faced an initial large lap of just over 70km followed by four laps of over 15km. A 3km climb on the small lap was followed by a pedaling descent, then a small kicker and about 3km of flat to the finish.
With the early part of the race run off in wet conditions, there were some crashes and a significant incident stopped the race for about 30 minutes just 28km into the contest.
By the time the race reached the smaller laps, a breakaway had gone clear and gained a significant gap. However, the second of the four laps was ridden very hard by the bunch, with the gap to the leaders coming down rapidly as a result.
Meehan attacked on a twisty descent on that second lap, though nobody went across to him and he was soon caught. However, his move had softened up what remained of the peloton, with his team mate then attacking and getting clear.
When a couple of other riders counter-attacked, Meehan latched onto the back of them, with that trio soon catching Meehan’s team mate, making it four in the chasing group.
They had the breakaway in their sights on the start of the main climb on the circuit. The catch was made up and over the climb, with the larger lead group them combining well to try and stay away.
The group was still clear as they headed out on the final lap, with eventual race winner Richards attacking solo just before the main climb began. Meehan then attacked early on the climb a couple of times but was marked. However, when he attacked again about halfway up he got clear, catching Richards as Chaussinand also latched onto them.
That leading trio had a gap of about 10 to 15 seconds on the nearest chasers, and though Meehan attacked up front and got clear of his two rivals, he was brought back, paving the way for a three-up sprint to decide the victory.
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