Postlberger defies injuries to capture overall Rás honours

Showing his grit after a bad fall at the start of Saturday's penultimate stage, Lukas Postlberger pushed through the injuries sustained in the high-speed crash to win the An Post Rás on Sunday. Finishing in the main bunch, eight second behind stage winner Aidis Kruopis, the Tirol Cycling rider became the second consecutive Austrian winner after 2014 champion Clemens Fankhauser.

Postlberger finished alongside his main rivals on both Saturday’s stage to Drogheda and Sunday’s stage to Skerries, ending the eight-day event one minute and five seconds ahead of Briton Josh Edmondson and Irish road race champion Ryan Mullen (both An Post Chainreaction).

In addition to Mullen, three other Irishmen finished in the top 12 – Martyn Irvine (Madison Genesis) was seventh, Ian Richardson (UCD) was best county rider in 10th and Conor Dunne (An Post Chainreaction) took 12th.

The latter team had an exceptional race campaign. They took second and third overall with Edmondson and Mullen; picked up a total of four stage wins; was best team; and also topped the points and mountains categories with double stage winners Aaron Gate and Kruopis. Mullen was also the best young rider.

Only for the time gained by Postlberger on last Sunday’s opening stage – plus his strong form and resilience shown since – the Irish squad might have taken a clean sweep of the categories.

Postlberger, though, is a very impressive rider. Stage winner in the Tour de l’Avenir in 2012, the 23-year-old has the ability to go on to a big pro career. “Right now, I feel this is my biggest victory,” he said. “I’m really happy and it is a big step forward.”

Sunday’s 132.6 km stage was marked by a dozen-rider breakaway which went clear minutes after the start. Kruopis was there, along with Fankhauser (Hrinkow Advarics Cycleangteam), Luke Grivell-Mellor (JLT Condor), Matteo Malucelli (Team IDEA 2010 ASD), two other international riders and the Irish quintet of Dominic Jelfs (Madison Genesis), Ronan McLaughlin (Cork Aquablue), Marc Potts (Down Nth Graham Powerhouse Sport), Bryan McCrystal (Louth Team Asea) and Fraser Duncan (Louth Team Asea).

The group was unable to gain more than two minutes yet, despite that, two riders stayed clear until the end. Kruopis and Malucelli pushed forward just before the 100km marker, as did Grivell-Mellor, but the latter was dropped half an hour later. Irishman Damien Shaw (Louth Team Asea) attacked the bunch with over a lap to go and reached the leading pair inside the final three kilometres.

Performing very impressively for a county rider, he was trying to improve on his second place finishes on Friday and Saturday. However, Kruopis was too quick and took the win ahead of Malucelli and Shaw. The bunch finished eight seconds later.

Mullen is still just 20 years of age and recognised the result as a big step forward. “The national championship win was big but this is my first time being up overall in a UCI stage race,” he said.

It’s further confirmation of his talent and comes eight months after he finished just 0.48 seconds behind the gold medallist in the world under-23 time-trial championships. Like Postlberger and Edmondson, he has a big future ahead.