With 4,865 metres of climbing over a distance of 234 kilometres, the course was considered one of the toughest in Olympic history. The searing temperatures and over six hours in the saddle combined to whittle down the peloton with 82 of the 130 riders finishing the race.

24-year-old Cork man, Eddie Dunbar made an attack inside the final 50 kilometres. Dunbar was joined by Remco Evenepoel and Vincenzo Nibali but other nations recognised the danger and acted quickly to close the gap. The decisive move was made on the Mikuni Pass when one of the pre-race favourites, Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia) blew the peloton apart on the steep climb. The move saw Eddie Dunbar distanced while Dan Martin remained in contention until a kilometre before the summit. Dan Martin crested Mikuni Pass in a chase group and battled on for a very respectable top 20 finish. Richard Carapaz (Ecuador) won gold with Wout van Aert claiming silver ahead of Tadej Pogačar in a photo finish.

Dan Martin’s reaction

Speaking afterwards today’s road race Dan Martin said:

“We came here with the idea of getting a medal and honestly, it’s been my best experience in an Irish team since I’ve been racing for Ireland. We had the best preparation possible; the staff have been amazing, and we really worked together. It was a great team performance and yeah, unfortunately I just didn’t have the legs when it mattered on the climb. It was super-hot there and I just missed a couple of seconds to be in that front selection that was fighting for the medals.”

The Irish cyclist continued:

“We did a perfect race today in my opinion. I wouldn’t change anything that we did today. That’s a really nice feeling coming out of an Olympic road race knowing that we all did our best. Nico did a great job of keeping me positioned and safe the whole way along and we had staff the whole way along giving us bottles. It really was a great team effort. I want to say thank you to everyone and just unfortunately we couldn’t come away with a medal this time but yeah it’s really promising for the future, how we’re developing as a team. It was really good to race with Eddie as well. I think he’s the future of Irish cycling, so it’s been good to share mine and Nico’s experience with him this week. The future’s bright and we can all look forward towards Paris now and try and improve our performance still.”

EQUESTRIAN

Irish equestrian athletes across all disciplines will wear a yellow ribbon during competition in commemoration of the loss of a highly talented young Irish athlete who tragically suffered a fatal incident in June.

Tiggy Hancock (15) was known across all equestrian disciplines and was a respected member of the Irish Pony High-Performance Eventing Programme. At the young age of 15, Tiggy had already made a mark on the sport and was one to watch whenever she competed, against both senior and youth athletes.

SWIMMING

Ellen Walshe was Team Ireland’s first swimmer in action at the Tokyo Aquatic Centre and she put in an impressive performance to win her Women’s 100m Butterfly heat. Her time of 59.35 seconds was just 0.03 seconds outside of her own Irish Senior Record set in June 2021. Walshe finished in 24th position overall, with the top 16 progressing to the semi-finals.

“It was a strong first swim for me, it’s just slightly off my PB.” Walshe said. “It would have been nice to get another Irish Senior Record but it wasn’t there, I felt strong, but you win some you lose some – I’m happy enough with the swim.”

Walshe is back in action on Monday (Day 3 – July 26th) in the Women’s 200m Individual Medley.

RESULTS

CYCLING:

Men’s Road Race: 16^th Dan Martin (6:00:04), 75^th Nicolas Roche (6:21:46), 76^th Eddie Dunbar (6:21:46).

SWIMMING

Women’s 100m Butterfly Heat: Ellen Walshe, 1^st in heat, 24^th overall with a time of 59.35.

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Dunbar took part in the 2011 European Youth Olympics in Trabzon, Turkey so he feels comfortable in an Olympic setting.

The 24-year-old Irishman is excited to represented Ireland at the Olympics, even if he believes there are bigger events on the professional cycling calendar.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m incredibly proud to represent Ireland in the Olympics and I always love representing my country, it’s something that means a lot to me,” said Dunbar.

“But as I said, I think in terms of cycling itself, it’s something that’s you don’t think of like I’m not thinking [of Paris] in three years time, you know, I’m thinking ‘Oh next year I’d love to do the tour’ or ‘I’d love to do the Giro’ or something like that.”

Dunbar is the youngest rider of the trio to represent Ireland on Saturday and will follow in the footsteps of Ireland’s first-ever Olympic medalist, Pat O’Callaghan – the gold medal winner was also from Banteer.

The Olympian was only 10 when a statue of O’Callaghan was erected in his hometown and always heard about the hammer throw champion growing up.

He has also been interested in rugby from a young age and used to get the same Munster players’ autographs every week at Musgrave Park.

“I probably watch more rugby than I do cycling being honest.”

The road cyclist comes into the Olympics off the back of a strong performance at the Tour de Suisse, where he won the prize of Best Youth Cyclist after helping INEOS Grenadiers teammate Richard Carapaz to the Yellow jersey.

His performances from Frauenfeld to Andermatt came several months after a crash at the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali.

He was slow to come back from the crash but felt confident heading into the race in Switzerland.

“I trained super good for two and a half weeks, I got called into Suisse, probably rode the best race my life there.”

The young cyclist is part of the Olympic cycling team ahead of Sam Bennett, who would have got in had the selection process been based on rankings.

However, Dunbar is a specialist when it comes to hills and with the course featuring 4,800m worth of climbing to do, the Banteer man is a good selection for the job.

The cyclist is expecting a different kind of race compared to the tours on the cycling calendar – the race being for one day only is a clear example of the differences it has.

From speaking to Nico Roche and his 2008 Olympics teammate Philip Deignan, Dunbar has concluded that the race relies more on individual confidence and awareness rather than a set strategy.

“I think it’s a race where you have to go in open-minded and see what happens. Just be attentive. And yeah, if you feel good, at a certain point, just go for it, you know?”

To see the Olympic schedule for Irish athletes on Saturday, July 24th, click here.

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Bennett, winner of the green jersey in this year’s Tour de France, beat Belgium’s Jasper Philipsen and Italy’s Jakub Marecszo in a sprint finish to narrowly take the stage win at the end of the 191.7 kilometres.

Today’s success is Bennett’s third Vuelta stage win and his sixth in a Grand Tour.

UAE Team Emirates and Bora-Hansgrohe went to the front of the peloton late on, before Philipsen moved clear 200 metres from the finish.

However, Deceuninck – Quick-Step’s Bennett went on the Belgian’s wheel and won by a bike length to secure his first win at this year’s La Vuelta.

“It was so fast on the run-in, I was a bit nervous,” said the winning Deceuninck-Quick-Step rider.

“I had the power but he (Philipsen) was so explosive out of the corner and I didn’t know if I would catch him” the 30-year-old explained.

“I found the speed I needed, and in the end, I managed to overtake him and take my first win since Champs-Élysées, which feels amazing”, a delighted Bennett said after picking up Deceuninck – Quick-Step’s 39th victory of the year.

Defending champion Primoz Roglic remains in the overall lead, five seconds ahead of Ireland’s Dan Martin with Richard Carapaz in third.

Stage four result
1. Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quick-Step)
2. Jasper Philipsen (UAE Team Emirates)
3. Jakub Mareczko (ICCC)

General classification after stage four
1. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) 16hrs 30mins 53secs
2. Daniel Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) +5secs
3. Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) +13secs

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Martin, who already had two third-place finishes this week, was taking his first La Veulta stage win since 2011.

Thursday’s 166km stage from Lodosa to Vinuesa featured two categorised climbs, which ultimately decided the outcome of the stage.

The Irishman accelerated inside the last 200m of the stage, out-sprinting Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) and Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers). The summit finish win was Martin’s first stage win since the 2018 Tour de France.

Dan Martin claims his second stage win on the roads of La Vuelta, 9 years after his victory in Sierra de Béjar-La Covatilla.

“I’ve come so close to winning this year. I just really wanted to win a stage for this team because they’ve been so good to me,” the emotional Irishman said.

“Obviously with the (back) injury at the Tour (de France), I couldn’t win a stage. I was really determined to win today. The team were amazing, and every single one of them played their part in the victory.

“This win is partly for them and then partly for my wife, because this is the first time I’ve won a race since my kids were born and it’s really special.”

Stage three result

1. Daniel Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation)
2. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma)
3. Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers)

General classification after stage three
1. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) 12hrs 37mins 24secs
2. Daniel Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) +5secs
3. Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers +13secs

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Two Irish riders, Ryan Mullan and Nicolas Roche will race the elite men’s time trial tomorrow, Friday, 25 September. The largely flat 31.7-kilometre route starts and finishes at the Imola autodrome and passes through the town of Borgo at the halfway mark. Unlike the road race, the time trial course has just 200m of elevation gain meaning it is expected riders will need to average in excess of 50kph to be in contention.

Roche suffered a crash on stage 10 of this year’s Tour however recovered well to feature in multiple breakaways and secure his 64^th top 10 stage finish in a Grand Tour.

Mullan is a 4-time Irish National Champion in the time trial and bronze medallist at the 2017 European Championships while Roche has 2 TT National titles to his name.

Both Roche and Mullen will also compete in the men’s road race over an arduous 258.2 kilometres featuring 9 loops and 5,000m of climbing on Sunday, 27 September. They will be joined in the race by Ben Healy and Dan Martin.

Martin started the Tour de France just 2 weeks after fracturing a bone in his lower back. The injury forced Martin to maintain a low profile in the early stages of the race however he sprung into the limelight on stage 13 in a long-range breakaway finishing 11^th and again on stage 17. With the Israel Start-Up Nation cycling team member coming into form, the 2020 UCI Road World Championships course looks to suit the punchy climber.

Ireland Squad for UCI Road World Championships, Imola, 25-27 September

Elite Men road race: Dan Martin, Nicolas Roche, Ben Healy, Ryan Mullen.

Elite Men Time Trial: Nicolas Roche, Ryan Mullen.

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The Carrick-On-Suir man, who won his first Tour de France stage yesterday, was bidding to become the first Irish cyclist to win consecutive stages in the world’s most famous cycle race, and was hoping to emulate his fellow ‘Carrick’ man, Seán Kelly, who the first of his five Tour de France stages in Poitiers in 1978.

Wednesday’s 167.5 kilometres stage from Châtelaillon-Plage went to Australian Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal), who was taking his second stage in this year’s event, with Peter Sagan second across the line and Bennett third.

When officials reviewed the race finish, Sagan was deemed to have shoved Jumbo-Visma sprinter Wout van Aert in the closing metres and was relegated to 85^th place, last in the finishing bunch sprint.

This meant Bennett was promoted to second, earning him more green jersey points, to add to the points he claimed earlier in the day when taking second behind breakaway leader Matthieu Ladagnous at the intermediate sprint.

“I don’t really know what happened it was so hectic,” admitted Bennett. “It (the final sprint) was hard to make the switch from following my teammate to going alone. I found myself too far forward too early and then I was trying to drift back and it was a bit late to drift back. Then they came at speed – it was just a complete mess. I just tried to limit my losses and get the best result I could.”

The Irish rider is now on 234 points, 68 points ahead of seven-time points’ classification winner Sagan on 175, with Frenchman Bryan Coquard third on 157.

Race leader Primoz Roglic from Slovenia maintains his lead over the defending Tour champion Egan Bernal.

Dan Martin and Nicolas Roche finished in 133rd and 138^th respectively on today’s stage, with Martin maintaining his position as the leading Irish rider in this year’s race. The Israel Start-Up Nation rider is 64^th on the general classification, with Roche 75^th and Tuesday’s stage winner Bennett 139^th, almost two-and-a-half hours behind the yellow jersey wearer.

Stage 11 result

1. Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) 4hrs 00mins 01secs
2. Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) same time.
3. Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) same time.

General classification after stage 11

1. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) 46hrs 15mins 24secs.
2. Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) + 21secs.
3. Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) + 28secs.

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The Carrick-On-Suir rider, who became the sixth Irishman to win a stage in the Grande Boucle, held off Australian Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) and Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) to take victory in Ile de Re Saint-Martin-de-Re.

Twenty-nine-year-old Bennett’s win gave his Belgian Deceuninck – Quick-Step team a second stage win at this year’s Tour following the victory of Julian Alaphilippe on stage 2.

Bennett’s victory means he has won a stage at all three of cycling’s Grand Tours, having taken three at the Giro d’Italia in 2018 and two at the Vuelta a Espana in 2019, both for his former team, Bora-Hansgrohe.

Bennett who has shown great consistency since the beginning of this year’s Tour, with second, third and fourth place finishes during the opening week of the race, said of his first Tour de France stage win:

“You dream of it and never think it will happen. It hasn’t hit me at all yet. Oh man, I was waiting to go and I thought I might have left it too late. I thought he might have got me.”

While reflecting on the day’s sprint, the Irish cyclist admitted:

“I forgot to throw the bike at the line in the moment and I thought he might have got me. I thought I’d be in floods of tears but I’m in shock.”

Bennett, who became very emotional and broke down in tears, continued:

“I just want to thank everyone that has been involved, the whole team, Patrick for giving me this opportunity and just everybody it took to get to here. I want to thank my wife, everyone around me.

“You dream of it, you never think it’ll happen. It did and, I don’t know, it took for a while to hit me.”

To add to today’s success, Bennett now regains the lead in the points classification, by 21 points, from seven-time green jersey winner Peter Sagan.

Tour de France leader Primoz Roglic retained the yellow jersey as he safely negotiated the flat 168.5km route from Ile d’Oleron Le Chateau. The Slovenian maintains his 21 seconds advantage over defending champion Egan Bernal.

In the day’s intermediate sprint Matteo Trentin (CCC) outsprinted Peter Sagan and Sam Bennett at Châtelaillon-Plage with 39 kilometres to go. Jumbo-Visma and Ineos-Grenadier put the pressure on with 18 kilometres to race before the bunch split into three pieces.

With the field back together 10 kilometres from the finish, Jumbo-Visma kept the situation under control before Nicolas Roche’s Team Sunweb went to the front. In the end, it was the races big sprinters who fought it out, with the Carrick-On-Suir man coming out on top.

Bennett becomes the sixth Irishman to win a stage at the Tour de France after Shay Elliott (1963), Seán Kelly (1978, 1980, 1981 and 1982), Stephen Roche (1985, 1987 and 1992), Martin Earley (1989) and Dan Martin (2013 and 2018).

Stage 10 result

1. Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) 3hrs 35mins 22secs.
2. Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) same time.
3. Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) same time.

Dan Martin finished 130^th on the stage, 5 minutes and 25 second behind his fellow Irish rider. Martin’s cousin Nicolas Roche was 10 minutes 52 seconds back after a crash.

Martin is now the highest ranked of the three Irish riders at this year’s Tour, standing in 64^th place on general classification, 1 hour 11 minutes and 13 seconds behind the race leader Primoz Roglic.

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Stage 8 from Cazères-sur-Garonne saw early attacks as Benoît Cosnefroy and Nans Peters (AG2R-La Mondiale), Ilnur Zakarin (CCC), Kevin Reza and Quentin Pacher (B&B Hotels-Vital Concept), Michael Morkov (Deceuninck-Quick Step), Neilson Powless (EF), Fabien Grellier and Jérôme Cousin (Total Direct Energie), Carlos Verona (Movistar), Toms Skujins (Trek-Segrafredo), Soren Kragh Andersen (Sunweb) and Ben Hermans (Israel Start-Up Nation) formed a 13-man breakaway group which at one stage of the day’s race had an advantage of 14’15’.

On the climb of the Port de Balès, Cousin rode away from the breakaway with 60km remaining but was reeled in 9km before the top of Port de Balès. Peters, Zakarin and Pacher moved into position while Jumbo-Visma seized the reins of the peloton.

Eventual stage winner Peters crossed the Port de Balès in first position with 36.5km to go, along with Zakarin but the Russian didn’t manage to follow the Frenchman in the downhill.

Peters started the ascent to col de Peyresourde with an advantage of 45 seconds’ over his rival. Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo-Visma) worked hard at the front of the chase but Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) was first to attack, followed by Primoz Roglic and Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic).

Pogacar went again, so did Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) and Quintana at the beginning of the downhill. While Peters kept his advantage to win stage 8, the yellow jersey group was reunited behind Pogacar who reduced his deficit on General Classification.

Bardet gained two seconds to move up as well but Yates remained in the yellow jersey with Rogli content to stay in second place.

Ireland’s Sam Bennett did claw back two points in the green jersey race thanks to the day’s intermediate sprint.

The Carrick-on-Suir rider is now just seven points behind points classification leader Peter Sagan, with 131 points to the Slovakian’s 138.

Team Sunweb’s Nicolas Roche is in 59th place overall, 46 minutes and 36 seconds behind yellow jersey-wearer Adam Yates, while Israel Start-Up Nation’s Dan Martin in 71st, almost an hour down.

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Van Aert of Jumbo-Visma became the first rider to win two stages in the 107th Tour de France as he outsprinted Edvald Boasson Hagen (NTT) and Bryan Coquard (B&B) in Lavaur after a fierce battle.

It was a double victory for van Aert’s team after they helped to split the 168 kilometres stage with just over 40km to go in a move that saw them work with rivals Ineos Grenadiers as both teams looked to exploit the opposition in the crosswinds.

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) and Mikel Landa (Bahrain McLaren) both missed the split and would lose well over a minute at the finish but they weren’t the only riders to see their General Classification bids dented with the Trek-Segafredo duo of Richie Porte and Bauke Mollema both missing out. Richard Carapaz, also lost time after he was forced to drop back after a late mechanical on a day that also saw the peloton fracture as early as the first climb due to extensive pressure from Peter Sagan and his Bora-hansgrohe team.

Sagan, for all the effort from his team, could only manage 12th at the line after getting boxed in and being forced to slow. His consolation came from the fact that he now leads the green jersey by nine points ahead of Sam Bennett.

Bennett finished a tough day empty handed, part of a group that finished more than 10 minutes down on the road. That means that Sagan, who began the day trailing Bennett by 12 points in the fight for green, now leads the category by nine.

Nicolas Roche is the leading Irish rider on general classification, 27 minutes 53 seconds down in 54th place, while Dan Martin is 72nd, nearly 14 minutes behind his cousin.

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Bennett, who became the first Irish cyclist to wear the green jersey since Seán Kelly, gained six points on the day’s intermediate sprint to increase his lead over his current main rival for the jersey, Sagan. With Bennett set to spend a second day in green on Friday, he will match the feat of his fellow Irishman, Stephen Roche, in 1987.

“Wearing this jersey today was amazing, a lovely experience”, Bennett proudly admitted. “People applauded me, I heard my name as the stage progressed, and to see the support I got was just beautiful. Coming into the Tour it wasn’t a goal, but it would be a huge honour to win it. I know it’s still a long way to Paris and a lot of work has to be put in to conquer this jersey, but I will take it day by day and see what happens”, the Waterford rider said of his first day’s experience of wearing the green jersey.

The day’s eight-man breakaway included Team Sunweb’s Nicolas Roche, who won two King of the Mountain points before a difficult finish, which saw the group splinter on the day’s principal climb, the Col de la Lusette, late in the 191km stage from Le Teil.

Roche, who won the stage’s combativity award as the day’s most aggressive rider, is now third overall in the polka-dot rankings, on 11 points, behind leader Benoit Cosnefroy on 23 points and Michael Gogl on 12.

Adam Yates, who yesterday became the ninth Briton to wear the Tour de France’s yellow jersey, retained the race leadership following today’s stage.

Nicolas Roche finished 56th in the stage, seven minutes and seven seconds down on the stage victor Lutsenko and now finds himself in 44th place overall, 11 minutes and 59 seconds behind Yates.

Israel Start-Up Nation’s Dan Martin was 71^st today and now finds himself in 76th position in the general classification, almost 40 minutes behind the race leader.

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