By Shane Stokes
He’s ridden the Rás twice before, with a best overall placing of 9th in 2022, and so George Kimber is elated to hold yellow with one day to go. The Isle of Man Cycling Club rider leaped from fourth to first overall on Saturday’s stage to Mountrath.
Along with Team Ireland duo Jamie Meehan and Dean Harvey, he dropped the other GC riders on the category one climb of Wolftrap. Overnight leader Odhrán Doogan (Cycling Ulster) finished 28 seconds back, leaving Kimber five seconds clear of Meehan with one stage remaining.
“I’m just so happy,” he told stickybottle at the stage finish. “Obviously, it’s such a prestigious race, so I’m taking a lot of pride right now. I’m sure it will take a while to sink in, but I’m just so happy to finally finish it off.”
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It was a day of double success for Kimber, with the 25 year old outsprinting Meehan and Harvey to also take the stage win. It was his first such success in the Rás. Key to his result was being able to hang onto Harvey and Meehan when they lit things up on the climb.
“It was the first steep bit at the bottom where it went really hard. I just had to go all or nothing to get over,” he admitted. “They’ve probably got the edge on me on the climb, so I just had to ride really smartly.
"The flatter bits of the climb suited me. I was right on the limit on anything steep, because obviously they are so good on the steep stuff, but I was able to recover a bit better on the flat.”
While the two Team Ireland riders knew that Kimber was ahead of Meehan on the GC, there was a benefit to him being there. He was strong on the flat sections, helping them to fend off those chasing behind and to half almost half a minute at the line.
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“We flew down the descent,” he said. “I didn’t know it, and obviously the roads have been super slippy. We probably could have taken a few risks, but if you’re riding GC, you just have to be sensible sometimes.”
Rás participations aside, Kimber has raced quite a bit in Ireland in the past. He was seventh in both the Coombes-Connor Memorial and the Galway Classic in 2023 and last year won stage two of Rás Mumhan. He returned to the event again this year and was second and third on stages.
What is his link to the country?
“It’s not a personal connection,” he said, ruling out any familial links. “It’s just I think the teams love coming here, because the racing has something that British racing doesn’t have. It’s very attacking, very hard. And you end up getting really good form from it.”
Kimber has been part of the Spirit Racing Team since 2020 but is riding the Rás with the Isle of Man squad. He said his success on Saturday was a way of thanking them.
“It felt amazing,” he said. “Especially with the team there and just being able to repay them. The Isle of Man team have been very supportive. They’ve got the Eleven Group supporting the team and funding them, so to be able to give something back is great.”
He’ll have their full support on Sunday’s final stage to Bective. With Meehan so close, and a dozen others within a minute, there’s a lot of hard racing yet to be done.
“We’ll see how it goes,” he said. “I’ve just got to follow the few guys and hope the pace of the race stays high. It would be huge to take it.
"But it’s nice having the stage win, though, because whatever happens tomorrow, we have still got that to take home. I was sort of treating today like a one day to win the stage. Then we’ll take tomorrow as it comes.”
