Michael O’Loughlin of Nicolas Roche Performance Team Magnet.ie took an incredible victory this morning in the 2nd stage of the Trophée Centre Morbihan in Brittany. The race is one of the biggest junior races in the world.
The stage was a 7.2-km time trial from Réguiny to Naizin, and the young Irishman won the stage by 1″ from Russian Nikolai Ilichev, with French rider Louis Louvet a further 2″ behind.
The French stage race forms part of the UCI Coupe des Nations for juniors, and features teams from France, Belgium, Denamrk, the US and Germany amongst other countries. Anthon Charmig of Denmark takes over the leader’s yellow jersey with one stage this afternoon remaining. The final stage consists of a lumpy 66-km route from Noyal-Pontivy to Locminé.
In yesterday’s opening stage of 119 kilometres, both O’Loughlin and Adam Stenson had finished in the bunch 14″ behind Charmig and Danish team mate Mikkel Frolich Honore. Jake Gray of the NRPT team came in 4’39” down.
Amongst the previous winners of the race are Lloyd Mondory, Moreno Hofland and Matthieu van der Poel.
