After some bad luck this season - including a concussion-inducing crash at the Junior Tour of Ireland - Eoghan Lattimore has bounced back in style to take victory on the opening stage at the A2-A3 Charleville Two Day in Co Cork today.
The Dungarvan CC rider was active off the front, in several breakaways, but still had the gas at the finish - after almost 90km to racing - to take the victory in the three-stage race. While he told stickybottle he was very pleased to win, especially after some unfortunate twists and turns this year.
That joy was tempered with news he was one of 10 riders to suffer time penalties today, thus denying him the yellow jersey, despite his very strong victory on stage 1 of the race.
The commissaires had warned team managers before the off they would strictly impose the rule around racing on the correct side of the road. And when 10 riders - at points through the stage - were judged to have crossed the white line, they were penalised with a 30-second penalty.
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Unfortunately Lattimore was one of them and that means - barring a successful appeal - the yellow jersey will pass to today's runner-up, Barry Meade of O'Leary Stone Kanturk. A first-year junior, who started 5th year at St Augustine's College in Dungarvan last week, Lattimore still has a win in the bag and was rightly thrilled with that result.
As well as Lattimore, the other riders to be penalised for 30 seconds for "continuously crossing the white line", include: Barry O'Driscoll (Castleknock CC), Eoin Clifford (Blarney CC), Ger Troy (Burren CC A), Jared Tritschier (Greenmount CA), John Sheridan (St Tiernan's CC), Keith Redmond (Sligo Cycling Team), Killian O'Brien (Orwell Wheelers), Seamus Babington (Panduit Carrick Wheelers) and Shane Spellman (Killarney Cycling Club A).
Lattimore said the visiting UK team, Foran CC, "controlled it from the start", sending "one man up the road, then they'd control the front and when he came back, another one would go" during the three-lap stage starting and finishing in Charleville.
On the second lap, and with about 40km to go, Lattimore got clear in a small group with his own team mate, Darragh McGee, and one of the Foran riders. However, while they managed to get clear, building a gap of about 20 seconds, they were soon caught. Then much closer to the finish, the Dungarvan CC rider was again attacking off the front; this time with Killian O'Brien, a top junior with Orwell Wheelers, and one of the Foran CC men.
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"We got away with about 4km to go but we were caught very quickly and it came down to a big sprint," he said, which he won, to take his first victory of the season just a week after completing the Junior Tour of Wales on the Tarrant Munster team.
"That was a very hard race," he said of the Welsh stage race. "Some of the lads there already have World Tour contracts, so they are very good. But I could feel my form was coming good and I was able to show that today."
Lattimore said he had only just learned of the 30 second time penalty moments before stickybottle, describing it as "a pain" and saying he was unsure if it could be lifted on appeal
Lattimore finished in the top 10 in both the road race and TT at at the National Road Championships this year; his 7th place finish in the road race a great result, with Dungarvan team mate Cal Tutty also taking bronze that day.
Lattimore has also had the chance, with Tarrant Munster, to race abroad. He competed in the Penn Ar Bed-Pays d'Iroise (2.1) stage race in France back in April, but crashed out on the opening day. In July he was in the Netherlands with the team for the four-stage Acht van Bladel (2.1).
He then went onto the Junior Tour of Ireland, placing 11th on the opening stage. While sitting 2nd in the white jersey classification he suffered a bad crash on stage 5, ending his race - "concussion, I was off the bike for a few weeks" - after a fall in the bunch close to the finish.
He was soon back on the road with Tarrant Munster, riding the La Ronde Des Vallées (2.1) stage race in France, where a crash on the opening stage left a lingering knee injury which forced him out on stage 3. However, he said by the end of the Junior Tour of Wales last week he could feel his form building again, and got his reward today with a very good bunch sprint win, despite being the attack late into the race.
Tomorrow, says he plan is to "got as hard as I can in the TT" stage 2 tomorrow morning - a flat 6km - and then hopefully try and perform well on stage 3. "It's a tough enough course, with a climb, so it'll be tough and we'll have attacking all over the place".
