A relentless barrage of attacks by Ian Bibby inside the final 25 kilometres on stage six of An Post Rás today was enough to set up a thrilling sprint finish, with the NFTO team rider emerging victorious following a thrilling sprint to the line.
Bibby attacked the descent on the final category two climb of the stage and from this point on he never looked like relinquishing his lead position. Westmeath man Damien Shaw tracked Bibby all the way, finishing in second place in what was an impressive show of strength and guile by the Louth Team Asea rider.
A win in Ballinamore has only served to whet Bibby’s appetite and he’s hungry for more success in the final two stages.
“Tomorrow we should have another good chance of doing well in the stage. I’ve done the last stage a few times now and we definitely have enough to be in the mix so we’ll see how the next couple of days go.”
After today’s result, Lukas Postlberger (Tirol) retains the Yellow jersey and is also joint leader in Points Classification with Aaron Gate (An Post Chain Reaction), while Ryan Mullen (An Post Chain Reaction) now holds a three minute and two 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.
Watch the highlights here:
