Stage Win & Yellow Jersey for An Post Rás Winner
Bagdonas was 3rd in the overall classification going into today’s 2nd of four stages, 186.2km from Pierrefonds to Le Plessis Belleville, and his big finish saw him take not only the stage win, he also leads the general classification and points going into tomorrow’s penultimate stage.
It was an excellent day all round for the An Post team. Four riders, Bagdonas, Peter Ghyllebert, Niko Eeckhout and Irish man Ronan McLaughlin attacked with 50km to go, and Bagdonas and Eeckhout were part of a 5 man leading group going into the final km. Bagdonas just took the stage win, with Eeckhout finishing second.
And to put an even bigger smile on team manager Kurt Bogaerts face, Andy Fenn leads the Young Rider Classification, while the team lead the Overall Team Classification.
“Yes, of course I am very happy about how today went. We had two riders finish strongly, and the rest of the team were in the chasing bunch, so it was another great team effort from us” he said
“We just need to re focus now and ensure we can deliver the same level of performance tomorrow”
The third and penultimate stage tomorrow is the second longest at 178.km from Bailleval to Verneuil-en-Halatte