First-year junior Ronan Tuomey (Cork Giant) stormed to stage one victory in the Stafford Wholesale Wexford two-day on Saturday and followed it up with second in the time-trial the same day. That gave him an advantage of almost a minute starting the final stage yesterday and he did the necessary – without the help of a team (Photo: Sean Rowe)
By Brian Canty
Ronan Tuomey took another eye-catching stage race win yesterday with a comfortable victory in the Stafford Wholesale Wexford two-day A3/junior race.
The first-year junior from the Cork Giant team did it all by himself as he claimed the opening stage by over a minute and following the evening time-trial he still had 57 seconds to spare over JB Murphy (Murphy Surveyors Kilcullen).
The third stage yesterday was a matter of marking those closest to him on GC but that proved rather painless for the 17 year-old.
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“The first stage (112 kilometres) was quite grim, few were motivated because of the horrible weather at the start,” he said.
“I wanted to race so I started attacking to see who was strong and eventually, a group of four slipped away up a small climb.
“I bridged across and we got a good pace going.”
Tuomey was calmness personified this weekend, taking the yellow jersey after a marvellous solo victory on stage one and holding it to the finish yesterday. (Photo: Sean Rowe)
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That group was the winning move, despite swelling to nine when four more got across.
Tuomey tested the waters when he took flight with around 25 kilometres to go and when he got daylight. he just pressed on.
“I could see everyone was suffering, so I attacked.
“I was on my own and rode a good, hard pace and the gap just kept increasing.
“By the time I got to the finish it was nearly a minute and a half to second (Murphy) and even further back to the break and I knew I was in a great position to win (overall),” he added.
After being left disappointed with his fourth in the junior TT national championships a week earlier he was on a revenge mission this weekend.
“My result in the road race wasn't great and I can only put that down to racing stupidly.
“I didn't use my head and paid for it. It would've been nice to come home with some sort of a medal.”
He said he was confident of holding the jersey into yesterday’s concluding stage, even though it was another wet day with 100 kilometres to tackle.
“It was a slow day nearly all day; lads marking everything except the break that has a gap,” he said, tongue in cheek.
“I knew I just had to keep the break on a leash and I was going to win.
“There was a lot of attacking from JB Murphy but that was about it.”
The break of nine – including stage winner Chris McCann (ASEA-Wheelworx) stayed away and had 51 seconds at the finish so Tuomey wasn't too worried as they were all over two and a half minutes back on GC starting the stage.
Tuomey, who also won the Kanturk three-day in May will now aim to win the Charleville two-day before possibly getting a spot on the Irish team for the European championships in France.
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