Paddy Clarke (second from left) made the escape yesterday and again today at Kerry Group Rás Mumhan and has now taken over the yellow jersey from Sean McKenna ahead of tomorrow's final stage (Photo: Brendan Slattery)
The new race leader of Kerry Group Rás Mumhan, Paddy Clarke believes he can hold onto the yellow jersey on tomorrow's final stage.
Clarke, who started today's stage 39 seconds down on overnight leader Sean McKenna (Irish U23 Development), finished eighth on the stage today and the time gained on McKenna and the other five he was behind this morning was enough to see him take custody of the jersey.
He's level on time with Mark Dowling (DID Dunboyne).
“It’s an unbelievable feeling to wear the leader’s jersey in one of the biggest races on the Irish racing calendar,” the 26-year-old Mayo man said afterwards.
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“I came in here a little under the radar but I knew I had good legs today and I made the race as difficult as I could by attacking as often as I could early on.
“Though I missed the initial move of five that went away by Ballinskelligs, I managed to merge with four others.
“And when I saw the five guys ahead of me overall had missed it, I just put the hammer down and drilled it to get as much of a gap as I could on them.”
Indeed, some of the biggest losers of the day were the Aquablue and UCD CC teams, as well as the Irish U23 Development team who had the yellow jersey wearer McKenna in their ranks and back in the peloton.
And though they made a concerted effort to bridge across – reigning champion Damien Shaw and Sean Lacey came to within a minute of the leaders - they eventually ran out of steam and came over the line 1:25 down.
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“I wasn’t sure I had the yellow jersey,” continued Clarke.
“I knew Mark Dowling was close to me and he even tried to escape from our group coming in the road but I jumped on his wheel and made sure he didn’t get away from me because he’d be in yellow now if he did.”
Coming in for the finish, the attention turned to stage honours and though local man Eugene Moriarty looked like he was going to spring a surprise, he was just overhauled on the line by Paidi O’Brien (Osbourne Meats/Edge Sports Shop) and Friday’s stage winner Cathal Moynihan (Tralee BC/Manor West).
Clarke and Dowling finished in the same time. But the former is the first to admit that the race is still there for the taking.
“There are over 10 guys within 90 seconds of me and that’s nothing in a race like this,” he said.
“Groups have slipped away before on the final day and pulled out big time because today is a hard stage and plenty guys still have every right to believe they can win.
“Dowling is on the same time as me, Sean Lacey is 47 seconds down, McKenna is at 46 seconds and there’s a string of Dutch guys right up there as well.
“But I’m confident because I feel good and I’ve a good team who will ride out of their skins for me today; Eddie Barry, Chris Reilly, Mike Storan, Gareth McCormack and Brian Canty know what they need to do today.
“It’s very simple, they have to chase down everything that looks dangerous and in all likelihood they won’t finish the race from all the chasing they’re going to have to do.
“We’re a small team, and not many would have given us a chance last Friday but we’ve ridden as a team, stuck to a plan and followed the programme laid out by our team managers at Fitscience.
“It’s been seven months of effort, five days a week, and now we feel we’re ready to finish the job.”
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