Synergy Baku rider Eibegger king of the mountains in Ireland
Baku, May 25 (AZERTAC). Markus Eibegger is now King of the Mountains in the An Post Ras. The Synergy Baku Cycling Project rider was once again in the break group of the day and picked up points on the seven ranked climbs in the seventh stage of the Irish race (May 18-25 / UCI 2.2). Chris Schweizer remains in fifth place overall.
Eibegger was part of a seven-rider break which got away very early. The Austrian rode aggressively and successfully, as he has all race, and was rewarded with a sixth-place finish and the King of the Mountains title. There are not enough points available in Sunday’s final stage for another rider to take the jersey.
“I am very happy to have won this jersey and to have it wrapped up before tomorrow,” Eibegger said. “The KOM jersey was not a target before yesterday, but when our sport director said that I could win it with only two hours of effort, we decided to go for it.”
Schweizer finished 18th on the stage, arriving in the major chase group at 1:28 down. He is the Azeri team’s highest-ranked rider, with Eibegger 15th.
“It was a tough day for me,” said Schweizer, who is more a sprinter than a climber. “My first goal was to get over the mountains as far in front as possible.” He credited teammates Daniel Klemme and Connor McConvey for helping him over the climbs and moving him back up to the race leader’s group. He tried to pick up some seconds to move up in GC, but was not able to get away. “But there is still one more day to try for just those 10 seconds…”
Sport Director David McCann said that Saturday’s stage went exactly as planned. “Our plan was to go in an early breakaway with Markus and to fight for the mountain jersey. After 12 km a group of seven guys went away. They stayed away the whole stage. In the end, all the guys attacked each other and the group splintered. Markus got sixth on the stage and won the final mountain jersey.”
“All the team did a very good job today. Tomorrow we want to defend Chris’ fifth place.”
David McQuaid, team manager, called it “A superb team performance, starting with a plan for the stage and executing the plan to perfection by sealing a KOM jersey. If we look at tomorrow, the final day, it maybe a chance to reward our sprinters, Klemme and Schweizer, for their work during the week. Chris is still up overall and will no doubt look to improve if there is a chance but seldom it happens on this stage.’”
“Looking back over five years at the finish in Skerries, four of the five have finished in bunch sprints, the only exception being our own DS McCann nabbing a solo victory there in 2011. Sprinters such as Kirsipuu and Degenkolb have won into Skerries and in more recent years the An Post Sean Kelly team have dominated the sprints. They will be the ones to watch tomorrow.”
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