All photos courtesy of Sean Rowe, results courtesy of the time team of the Junior tour, with thanks to both!!
Well done to all my bursary holders and graduates of the Belgian Project, it makes me feel I chosen right!!
So sorry for Liam and team Ireland…a crash in the last km prevented him to sprint for the bonus seconds…but chapeau young man, you done what you could…you have a great future ahead!!
Michael Collins (Munster) one of the hard workers in the peloton despite a crash in stage 1 soldiered on, one to watch next year!!
A message from the organisers of the Junior Tour of Ireland
A lot of questions asked today onsite and online about the count back rule so just to clarify what happened today as it is not something that is experienced very often for the Individual GC but more likely to be seen in points or mountains classifications.
UCI Article 2.6.015 states:
Where two or more riders make the same time in the general individual time placings, the fractions of a second registered during individual time trials (including the prologue) shall be added back into the total time to decide the order.
If the result is still tied or if there are no individual time trial stages the placings obtained in each stage, except team time trial stages, shall be added and, as a last resort, the place obtained in the last stage ridden shall be taken into consideration.
The Junior Tour is held under Cycling Ireland regulations which Article 3A states pretty much the same thing: When two or more riders make the same time in rule T7.A3A.2 above then the following criteria will be applied in order until the riders are separated.
(a) Fractions of a second as recorded in the individual time trial stages, including the prologue shall be
added back into the total time.
(b) Sum of places obtained in each stage.
(c) Place obtained in the last stage ridden.
There was no TT so fractions of a second could not be taken into account.
While we do have the final 3km rule in place, that is for the crediting of the time of the group the rider(s) affected by the mishap were in. The stage position is still based on the order with which they cross the line. This impacted O’Brien’s placings on stage 3 and 6 with a puncture and crash in the final 3km impacting on the placings but not on the times.
All stages in the Junior Tour of Ireland contained time bonuses on the finish line of 10, 6 and 4 seconds.
While O’Brien in yellow crashed in the final 1km, Lubbers of Ignite Canada finished second gaining a 6 second time bonus and drawing level with O’Brien forcing a countback scenario.
