New Zealander Aaron Gate fought off stiff competition from Marco Tizza and Matteo Malucelli (Team IDEA 2010 ASD) to storm to victory in Stage five of An Post Rás. Gate broke away from the leading pack with just five kilometres to go in an audacious move that set the platform for his stage victory today in Ballina.
Jaap de Man (Team 3M) and Marco Tizza (Team IDEA) followed the An Post rider’s break and the three men worked well together through a highly technical home stretch with lots of twists and turns. The gap shortened quickly as the pack reeled in the three leaders but Gate managed to hold off a final assault by Tizza and Malucelli to give An Post Chain Reaction their third stage win of this year’s Rás.
After the race Aaron Gate seemed optimistic about his team’s chances in the General Classification.
“The Rás is definitely a race that isn’t over until the fat lady sings. We could have thought that the GC was out of the way on the first day but that definitely is not the case. We are just going to have to keep riding hard, enjoy the final three stages and maybe even try to get another win.”
After today’s results Postlberger retains both the Yellow and the Points Classification Jerseys, while Ryan Mullen (An Post) now holds a three minute and twenty nine second lead over Jaap De Mann (Team 3M) in the U23 category. Best County Rider (Ian Richardson) and King of the Mountains (Robert Partridge) remain unchanged.
If the camera had been angled slightly right, my childhood home would have been way in the distance!!