Mark Dowling takes the final yellow on the podium of Kerry Group Rás Mumhan this afternoon, with Dylan Foley of the Irish Development team the winner of the climbers' classification (Photo: Pat Doherty)
Having started the day equal on time with overnight yellow jersey Paddy Clarke, Mark Dowling has this afternoon won outright the 2014 Kerry Group Rás Mumhan.
The DID Dunboyne rider took the biggest win of his career when he managed to escape from the main bunch and infiltrate a chase group that hunted down the four-man winning breakaway.
Though that chase group Dowling was in would never make contact with the men up front, it stayed clear of the peloton containing yellow jersey Clarke and the time gained by Dowling put him into the leader's jersey at the finish.
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It was a bitter blow for Clarke (Liquidworx-Fitscience) who was delighted to have taken the jersey yesterday but who could not contain the challenge of Dowling and his team all the way on the final stage.
Provisional results at the time of writing suggest Clarke hung on to second place overall and that Sjors Dekker (WV West Frisia) was third.
The stage was 117km; first taking the riders on three loops of a circuit based between Killorglin and Beaufort, before staying in Killorglin for 10 laps around the streets of the town which were packed with crowds for the riders.
With the breakaway established, Dowling made his move in the chase group as the riders headed onto the fifth of the laps around Killorglin.
And while the gap maintained by the leaders was very small, and the gap between Dowling’s group and the yellow jersey bunch never went north of 30 seconds; that order was maintained all the way to the finish.
Bryan McCrystal, who won the Des Hanlon Memorial race in Carlow so dominantly two weeks ago, provided something of a consolation prize for his Aquablue squad in getting into the winning move today, and proving strongest at the end to take victory ahead of UCD’s Anthony Walsh.
Owen James of the UK BH-Solidor team was with the two Irish riders in the winning move and he was 3rd over the line, with the fourth home of escapees another UK rider in the shape of Chris McNamara (Casco-Surrey).
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McCrystal’s Aquablue won the race overall last year with Damien Shaw. And having already scored strong wins and put in some very impressive rides in placing in other tough races to date in the 2014 campaign, they missed the key nine-man move yesterday into Waterville that reshaped the general classification.
Their man Dylan Foley won the queen stage on Saturday and also won the king of the mountains classification this weekend, but he did that riding on the Irish Development team rather than for his club.
The overall win for Dowling is by far his biggest since converting from triathlon in recent years. He predicted "all hell would break loose" on the today's finishing circuits and will be relieved that he was the one turning the screw.
It is not his first success at this race; winning the queen stage up the Connor Pass two years ago and taking the yellow jersey only to lose it when he punctured.
He had told stickkybottle coming into this weekend that despite winning the Brendan Carroll Memorial last week, his iron levels in his blood had been very low and had led to an acute loss of power.
He was concerned that his plan to keep a lid on his form until much closer to his big goal for the season the An Post Rás may be scuppered by the condition that he was trying to put right.
However, on the basis of his riding this weekend, there is not too much wrong with him and he can look forward to the Rás next month, where he believes he could win a stage if everything went well for him.
Meanwhile, the unfortunate Clarke will be gutted to get so close to winning only for it to be taken away on the final stage, just like Ryan Sherlock the year before last.
He told stickybottle last evening that he felt he could win, though conceded trying to keep a lid on Dowling and others within striking distance would be a challenge for his team.
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