Having been in flying form on the domestic scene since the start of the season, Daire Feeley (All human-VeloRevolution) won stage 2 at Dornan Rás Mumhan today. However, 19-year-old Australian Luke Tuckwell (Trinity Racing) took the yellow jersey racing around the bohereens of Co Kerry, a long way from his home in Orange, in regional New South Wales.
Just 24 hours after the Irish riders - bar Liam Crowley of UCD Cycling Club - slipped up by missing the winning stage 1b breakaway, two of the really big beasts - Feeley and Conn McDunphy (Team Skyline Cadence) - and now firmly back in contention after a 1-2 today.
McDunphy showed his class by lighting it up on the climb of Coomakista early in the stage.
And though a group of about 30 riders would leave the rest behind on the long, grippy, road into Sneem, the winning four-man breakaway only got clear on the finishing circuits.
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There were bodies everywhere around the circuit - with a deceptive, tough, little climb - by the time the savage 114km stage was done. There is a big finish to come tomorrow, on Kerryman's Table, but the fatigue was clear in the faces and words of the riders, even the best of them, at the finish today.
"Tom attacked coming through the finish line and a Trinity rider (Tuckwell) and Conn (McDunphy) jumped across to him and I jumped on their wheel," stage winner Feeley explained of the winning move that saw the eventual top four go clear; his All human-VeloRevolution team mate Tom Martin initiating the attack.
"Then we started working together and we were away but, fuck, that was a rotten, rotten, rotten bastard of a day. But look, we won the stage and Tom is up there for the GC, we're not too far away."
Tom Martin, Feeley's team mate who is now up to 2nd overall behind Trinity's Tuckwell, said it was "a good day out" though he conceded he had "underestimated the finishing circuit".
"It's a grippy climb and I got distanced a little," he said. "I managed to get back to the group in the last few K and then did my best to try and help out."
McDunphy, who took 2nd place after suffering a mechanical yesterday on stage 1b as the breakaway was going clear, joked that he had put in a "headless chicken" performance today.
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"If it had have been more of a crosswind across Coomakista I thought I might stay away, but it turned into a block headwind," McDunphy said of the last big climb of the day, a cat 2 with just over 40km to go where he was off the front solo on the ascent.
"I kinda tied up there, honestly I was hoping someone would come across. And then coming in to the (finish) line with the two lads it was very tactical," he said of Feeley and Martin both riding with All human-VeloRevolution.
"Tom Martin got dropped coming in the road and they Feeley sat in and got a free ride," he said of Feeley not pushing the pace on in the last few kilometres because he did not want to distance his team mate who is in the general classification mix after making the stage 1b breakaway.
"I was coming up to him (Feeley) on the line but he's a better sprinter than me. We had a great ride in the team time trial (stage 1a), I barely saw under 600 watts coming in the road. And then yesterday I had a double puncture (on stage 1b) and then the break went. But it's all to play for."
Liam Crowley of UCD Cycling Club, who was in the first chasing group today, will again wear the white jersey of U23 lead rider tomorrow as the leader of that classification, Tuckwell, is now in the yellow jersey.
"Dean (Harvey, Trinity Racing) was trying to test me there coming up the climb, he was throwing in a few digs," Crowley said of the late climb on the circuit on the final lap.
"He was four seconds behind me (in GC and the U23 classification) coming into the stage but I just held onto him by the skin of my teeth. Rest and recovery will be super important today but I was really happy with the legs to get into that early move and get over the first climb there, it was very steep," he said of the 6km cat 1 Ballaghisheen Pass which started 33km into the stage.
New yellow jersey Tuckwell, who was in the breakaway yesterday and wore the climbers' jersey today, said he was now delighted to be leading the race overall.
"It was another good day, another day I felt good, but those roads were something special," he said of the grippy course in Kerry. "It's real only wide enough for two people, and getting whacked by the crosswinds, so it was definitely a new experience.
"Fingers crossed we can hold (yellow) tomorrow and Dean is the road captain for us because he knows the roads. He's got his head screwed on and he knows what he's doing so we're in safe hands."
