Sean Yelverton, riding for Munster, on his way to victory on a sodden stage 1 at the Kanturk Three Day (Photo with thanks to Brendan Slattery)
By Brian Canty
Sean Yelverton took his second win of the season today when he won the opening stage of the Kanturk 3-Day - but he’s resigned to losing the leader’s jersey to fellow junior Michael O’Loughlin tomorrow.
The pair came to the line together today after escaping from a large break of 16 riders which proved the decisive move of the stage, fought out over a hilly 100 kilometre course.
Mego Racing Team rider Yelverton just edged O’Loughlin (NRPT-Magnet.ie) in the gallop that decided the stage but he expects to lose the jersey in tomorrow morning’s 8-kilometre time-trial.
“Michael is a super time-trialist,” said the Limerick man.
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“He was eighth in the world last year so it’ll be really hard to beat him.
“Hopefully I’ll hold off the lads who were in the chase group and I can hold second place.”
Yelverton, who won the GasNetworks Ireland-Visit Nenagh Classic a fortnight ago, had around half a minute to spare on the chase group that were sprinting for third today.
Taking the VisitNenagh.ie Classic two weekends ago; now Yelverton has done it again (Photo: Brendan Slattery)
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“There were around 16 in the break in total,” he recalled of the early exchanges today.
“We had to ride honestly and we did, we all did our turns initially.
“There had been a big break away before Michael and a few of us got across to them.
“That happened on the second lap, on the first steep hill after Kanturk. Michael attacked and a few of us went with him.
“He was strong on the climb and had a lot of lads were under pressure. But we rode strongly and got across to the break.
“When we got there we all rolled through but the last time up the climb Michael attacked again.
“He really horsed it up and dragged me and Caimin Muldoon (NRPT-Magnet.ie) with him.
“We all did our turns but on the third hill we dropped Caimin near the top, so me and Michael rode up and over all the way home.
“Coming to the line he led it out and I just got him in the sprint.”
After the morning time trial tomorrow there's a road stage of 80 kilometres followed by another road stage on Monday.
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