LLOYD ON FORM IN SPAIN

Dan Lloyd of the An Post-M Donnelly-Grant Thornton-Sean Kelly team took fourth place overall in the three-day Volta Ascension, a Spanish UCI 2.2 stage race. This result is hot on the heels of his win at the Vuelta Extremadura in April.

The race started well, with Lloyd?s team mate Dan Fleeman taking third place on the first stage, but he was heavily marked after that, and he says, ?I didn?t have a good day on the second stage. No reason, I was just a bit off it.?

Lloyd managed to move into fourth overall and Fleeman focussed on defending his team mate?s position. After the race ended on Saturday, Lloyd told Cycling Weekly, ?It was another solid result. Three very hard days of racing with five hour stages over a Liege- Bastogne-Liege type course, with never a metre of flat.

?The fact that the race was never really controlled made it hard from start to finish. I'm pretty shattered now, but it's satisfying to get another solid result in a stage race. Dan (Fleeman) was flying on the first stage, but everyone saw it and he was a marked man next day. I managed to get into the right moves that day, and that is what propelled me to fourth overall.?

Lloyd and his team mates have a short break now, but then comes one of the most important periods of racing in the year for the Belgian based Irish team. ?I've got a couple of weeks break before I head to the Irish RAS, which is obviously an important race for us. Two days later we?ll start the Tour of Belgium. It's a busy schedule, but I'm feeling stronger all the time,? says Lloyd.

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