News

The 2024 UCI Road and Para-cycling World Championships concluded this weekend.

The Men’s Elite Race provided excellent racing. The 273km course, which included 4470m of elevation saw 196 riders take to the start, but all eyes were on Tadej Pogačar to see he could claim the rainbow jersey from Mathieu van der Poel.

Four riders made up the Irish contingent – Eddie Dunbar, Ben Healy, Conn McDunphy and Archie Ryan.

In a race that was described as “uncontrolled chaos” by commentators, Pogačar made his move earlier than excepted. With 100km to go he gained a significant lead alongside Pavel Sivakov for France. This year’s Tour de France winner dropped Sivakov with just over 50 km to go.

There were some small breaks within the peloton, but it wasn’t until 70km to go Ben Healy was one of three riders to successfully breakaway. Healy worked alongside Oscar Onley for Great Britain and Toms Skujins for Lativa.

It wasn’t long before it was just Skujins and Healy were on their own, working together to maintain their lead on the peloton and to try gain on Pogačar.

Going into the final lap, Healy and Skujins were one minute behind Pogačar, and almost half a minute ahead of the second chasing group which included Remco Evenepoel and reigning World Champion Mathieu van der Poel.

There was a moment with under 24km to go that Healy dropped back from Skujins, but he quickly rejoined the Latvian. As the race neared the final 20km Healy and Skujins started to reduce the gap to Pogačar for the first time.

Swiss rider Marc Hirschi began to bridge to Healy and Skujins. Hirschi was joined by Enric Mas for Spain. The pair worked together to try to close in on Healy and Skujins. As the race reached 16km to the finish line the chase group consisted of seven riders, with Healy still very much in contention.

Tadej Pogačar claimed victory, coming home with a 34 second lead over Ben O’Connor for Australia in second. Van der Poel had to settle for third as he edged ahead of Skujins in fourth.

Evenepoel and Mas finished in fifth and sixth respectively, with Ben Healy claiming seventh place in what has been a brilliant season for him.

This victory makes Pogacar the third person in cycling history to win the Triple Crown of cycling – winning the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and the World Championships in one year. The last rider to win the Triple Crown was Irish cyclist Stephen Roche in 1987.

Archie Ryan finished in 21st place, showing great promise for the future. Eddie Dunbar came home in 67th place.

Conn McDunphy was one of 114 riders who did not finish the gruelling seven circuit

Women’s Elite Road Race

Ireland had three riders in action in yesterday’s Women’s Elite Road Race, which included the Under 23 category. Irish National Road Race Champion Fiona Mangan was joined by sisters Caoimhe and Aoife O’Brien.

Not for the first time this week, weather made for very challenging race conditions. The race spanned 154.1km with 2384m elevation.

Of the 194 starters, over 110 riders did not complete the course. Fiona Mangan finished in 65th. Unfortunately both O’Brien sisters were in the group that did not finish.

These championships saw Irish riders do battle with the best in the world and come home with a host of excellent results, including double gold for Katie-George Dunlevy and Linda Kelly in the Women’s B Individual Time Trial and Road Race, bronze for Joesphine Healion and Eve McCrystal and a further seven top ten finishes.