Robert O'Leary (Irish National Team) taking the opening stage and the first yellow jersey of the Gorey Three-Day over the weekend. The young Corkman would hold the jersey for the whole race, albeit with the Trojan work of his team - both Ireland and Cork-Giant (Photo: Sean Rowe)
By Brian Canty
Cork teenager Robert O'Leary won the biggest race of his career yesterday when he wrapped up overall victory in the Gorey Three-Day.
The Cork-Giant rider had been down to ride the junior edition of Gent-Wevelgem with the Irish team but Cycling Ireland decided to send them to Gorey on account of the terror attacks in Belgium last week.
While disappointed at not getting to compete in a Nations Cup event, O'Leary put it to one side and rode a perfect race in Gorey, taking the jersey on day one and holding it for the duration of the race.
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“It feels great to win, not just a stage but the overall as well,” he said in reference to his opening day victory over Aquablue’s Shane O’Neill.
“It was great to win in my first race wearing a green jersey.”
O'Leary gave himself a lot to do, mind, having missed the initial break on stage one.
But he proved his class by zipping across to the escape with the help of Ronan Tuomey (Cork Giant).
O'Leary rode well to get the yellow jersey and continued to show a lot of ability aided by his team mates through the weekend (Photo: Sean Rowe)
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“The break had a gap of a minute but we bridged across just before Gorey where we turned left up the hill towards Cranford.
“I could see the break was tiring and I knew I’d need to go again and when I did, only Shane O’Neill of Aquablue came with me.
“He put in a really strong turn on the descent to Cranford and we pulled out a gap and the win was in sight.
“I led out the sprint into the final hill to the finish, Shane passed me halfway up but I was just able to throw it onto the big ring and come around him.”
With a one second gap over O’Neill and 12 seconds on Cameron McIntyre of (NRPT) O'Leary knew he had to be vigilant thereafter.
But things took a turn for the worse when a break escaped on day two and pulled out a massive four minutes – forcing him to react again.
“Dillon Corkery (Cork-Giant) came back from the break and with the help of Ronan Tuomey and my Ireland teammates we were able to split the bunch and bridge in a group without O’Neill,” explained O’Leary.
The stage finished in a bunch sprint with Ireland teammate Jake Gray taking second behind Michael Devins (Eire Og).
Stage three was fraught with danger as O’Leary was just seven seconds clear of McIntyre and 15 seconds clear of two others.
But once again, he and his team controlled matters superbly, with Eoghan McLoughlin (Westport Covey Wheelers) taking the stage win but not threatening the overall.
“The team did great early on to set up teammate Luke Smith for the KOH points which secured his jersey,” explained the would-be winner.
“And keeping yellow would not have been possible without the help of my teammates – Irish and Cork-Giant.
“I was confident of winning stage one when I jumped away with Tuomey to bridge to the break (on day one) but I didn’t go into the race hoping to win the overall, a stage win was my target.”
For the final stage results and overall classification click here.
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