While Dean Harvey of the Cycling Ulster team was disappointed at being sanctioned with a two-minute penalty on the final stage of Rás Mumhan - thus losing the overall victory - it was not the first time last weekend that the commissaires imposed significant penalties.
The Spokes Racing Team squad of race winner Finn Crocket was penalised in the same manner during the race. One of its riders, like Harvey, was sanctioned for "sheltering behind or falling into a slipstream of a vehicle for some time". Another rider was also disqualified from the race for holding onto a team car.
The Spokes Team Rider, Craig Paterson, found to have sheltered for too long behind a vehicle on stage 2 was penalised by two minutes in the general classification. The team manager was also fined €30. Harvey was penalised for the same breach on the final stage.
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Harvey was relegated from the stage win to the back of the breakaway - 8th place. That meant he lost his five-second stage win time bonus - which would have won him the race overall by one second from yellow jersey Crockett.
And when Harvey was also penalised with a two-minute sanction, as Spokes Racing Team's Paterson was on stage 2, it also meant Harvey lost his young rider classification victory. However, he told stickybottle he was mostly disappointed for the team, saying they deserved to win the race after all their work for him during the weekend.
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But he also said he would move on quickly, that he felt he did nothing wrong on the final stage but ultimately had plenty to look forward to, including bigger goals, in the months ahead of his Trinity Racing trad team and also with the Irish national team.
Stickybottle understands the commissaires told team managers before Kerry Group Rás Mumhan started they would strictly enforce the rule around drafting for long periods behind vehicles. They proved true to their word on stage 2, when penalising Paterson, and then on stage 4 with the Harvey sanction.
That action was taken against Harvey after a complaint was lodged about the manner he returned to the stage 4 breakaway after a double puncture on the finishing local laps in Killorglin.
In general, the commissaires had a relatively busy week. Aside from the disqualification of a rider on stage 1 for "holding onto some other motor vehicle", two riders were issued with warnings after stage 1 for failing to turn up at the prize presentation.
On stage 2 a total of 14 sanctions were imposed, mostly warnings issued to riders for failing to assemble at the designated location at the start of the stage. On stage 3, one rider was fined €40 for failing to obey the rules of the road while Harvey was the only rider sanctioned on stage 4.
