Controversy at Rás Mumahan | Harvey loses stage and GC win after penalty | Sticky Bottle

*Dean Harvey crosses the line first on final stage of Kerry Group Rás Mumhan today but he was then relegated and penalised (Photo: Brendan Slattery)*

Dean Harvey's joy at winning the final stage at Kerry Group Rás Mumhan - and also taking the overall victory - has been short-lived as he has now lost both. The Cycling Ulster rider celebrated his victory after sprinting in at the head of the breakaway to claim the stage 4 win into Killorglin at the end of 113km of racing today.

He was already leading the young rider classification starting this morning. He also began the stage 2nd overall - just four seconds down on yellow jersey Finn Crockett (Spokes Racing Team). That meant the five-second time bonus Harvey secured for the stage win today should have also secured him overall victory, by just one second from Crockett. However, shortly after the stage ended the commissaires penalised Harvey, which impacted all of the results.

Harvey suffered a double puncture on the finishing circuit today - with about three laps of 10 remaining - and then regained contact with the breakaway. However, it appears the manner of his chase back on was viewed as a breach of the rules by the commissaires, who saw some of the chase as he passed through the line on the finishing circuit.

As a result, Harvey was relegated to last in the breakaway - and so took 8th place on the stage rather than 1st. That also meant he lost his five-second time bonus for the stage win, and so lost the overall victory. Furthermore, he was issued with a two-minute time penalty and so has dropped to 7th overall.

*Irish junior rider Dunwoody leads British senior Warhurst in their two-man escape on today's final stage and they ended the day 1st and 2nd (Photo: Brendan Slattery)*

Harvey's relegation on the stage means the man 2nd over the line today - Matthew Warhurst (ROKit SRCT) - took the stage victory from Irish junior rider Seth Dunwoody (Cycling Ireland Junior Team) and Jenson Young (ROKit SRCT). Warhurst and young Dunwoody made most of the running today - spending more than half of the stage clear in a two-man move before being caught by six chasers with less than 10km to go.

Yellow jersey Crockett was pushed up one place to 4th on the stage, though was still outside the time bonuses. But because Harvey was relegated and penalised, Crockett has been crowned overall winner for this year, retaining the yellow jersey he took after winning stage 2 in very impressive fashion.

Crockett takes the title - 12 months after Lindsay Watson's victory - by 1:00 from Ewan Warren (Caldwell Cycles). Ewan was in the three-man winning breakaway on stage 2 with Harvey and Crockett. Based in Spain this year, Ewan also won the young rider classification this weekend; a big step up from last Easter, when he was riding the Gorey Three Day, where he won a stage.

The winning breakaway today contained four Irish riders and four British cyclists. Very promisingly, two of the Irish riders in that breakaway - which gained 32 seconds on the remains of the main field - were juniors.

The six-man chasing group that eventually caught the two leaders. Left to right: Finn Crockett (yellow), Daire Feeley, junior Liam O'Brien, Dean Harvey, Jenson Young and John Buller, obscured (Photo: Brendan Slattery)

Dunwoody and Liam O'Brien, both competing with the Irish junior team, made the cut and finished 2nd and 7th respectively on the stage. Their ability to be among the strongest, on such a hard finishing circuit at the end of four tough stages of racing, underlines their potential.

How it unfolded

The final stage began with Crockett leading overall by four seconds from Harvey, and after three stages in which the duo looked like the strongest riders in the race. Warren, who also put in a great show this weekend, was 3rd overall starting out today, and was 28 seconds off yellow. Yesterday's stage 3 winner -Dominic Jackson (Foran CC) - was 4th overall at 57 seconds. After the top four, the gaps were bigger; Daire Feeley (All human-VeloRevolution) 5th at 1:19 and Matthew Warhurst (ROKit SRCT) 6th at 1:23.

However, while it was tempting to assume the race for the final yellow jersey involved only the top three, anything can happen at Kerry Group Rás Mumhan and the racing was always going to be all-out today. The riders first raced three laps of the 24km Beaufort circuit before moving onto the Donal McKenna Circuit local laps around Killorglin - for 10 passages of the 4.1km circuit.

It was on the third lap of the Beaufort circuit that the winning breakaway began to take shape. It was junior rider Dunwoody and British senior Warhurst who made the first move, getting clear and combining well. As they entered Beaufort for the third time they had a gap of just over 30 seconds on the remains of the peloton, which was down to about 70 riders.

*Last year's overall winner Lindsay Watson leads the way during today's final stage (Photo: Brendan Slattery)*

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As the leading duo raced down the Killarney to Killorglin road, three chasers had gotten clear of the bunch and were in pursuit. They were Mark Shannon (Crimmins Howard Burren CC), Joe Wilson (Embark Spirit BSS) and Darragh McCarter (Spellman Dublin Port)

With the gap between the two groups at about 40 seconds, a second chasing group - also containing three riders - got off the front of the bunch; Patrick Casey (Cycling Ireland Junior), Conor Halvey (Four Masters CC) and Richie Maes (All human-VeloRevolution). They soon caught Shannon, Wilson and McCarter, making for a six-man group chasing leaders Dunwoody and Warhurst.

However, the six-man group was caught by the bunch and when the two leaders raced onto the small circuit in Killorglin, they had a gap of almost one minute on the remains of the peloton, containing yellow jersey Crockett and the other fancied general classification men.

By the end of the second lap, the stop-start pace in the bunch was playing into the hands of the two leaders, who still had a one-minute gap. That edged out even further, close to 1:20, as they raced around the third lap, at which point Warhurst was close to becoming yellow jersey on the road.

However, with about five of the 10 local laps completed, a six-man chasing group got away from the bunch and set off in pursuit of Dunwoody and Warhurst. Race leader, Crockett, and 2nd placed Harvey were in that group along with Rás Tailteann champion Daire Feeley (All human-VeloRevolution), Irish junior team rider Liam O'Brien, John Buller (Cycling Ulster) and stage 1 winner Thomas Springbett (Foran CC).

*Finn Crockett is presented with the trophy and final yellow jersey as overall winner of the 2023 edition of Kerry Group Rás Mumhan (Photo: Brendan Slattery)*

Once they got moving they made the first real inroads in the leaders' advantage. However, with three laps to go, Harvey suffered his double puncture out of the chasing group. Up front, Warhurst had pressed on alone as Dunwoody took a breather and waited for the chasers.

Warhurst led solo crossing the finish line going out onto the penultimate lap, though he had just a few seconds on the six chasers, with Harvey about to swell their number to seven. Warhurst was still leading alone as he took the bell, clearly intent on pushing on in the hope of taking the stage and significantly improving his GC position.

However, the chasers were right behind him and he was swallowed up before the finish on the last lap; Harvey sprinting in ahead of him, with Dunwoody 3rd followed by Young, Crocket, Feeley, Springbett and O'Brien, in that order.

Harvey was then relegated to the back of that group, meaning Warhurst and Dunwoody - the two main men of the final stage - were bumped up to 1st and 2nd, with everyone else in the breakaway also moved up one place.

After the eight-man lead group today, John Buller (Cycling Ulster) was on his own for 9th place, just 18 seconds down. Joe Beckingsale (ROKit SRCT) won the sprint for 10th place, leading in the main bunch, which numbered just 44 riders.

Ewan Warren was in that group and had done enough to retain 3rd overall, though that became 2nd in he final standings after Harvey was penalised by two minutes. Warhurst ended the race in 3rd overall, at 1:18, while Feeley was 4th - after a brilliant ride yesterday - at 1:19.

Then came yesterday's stage winner, Dom Jackson (Foran CC), in 5th place at 1:29, followed by: Jenson Young (ROKit SRCT) 6th at 1:51; Dean Harvey (Cycling Ulster) 7th at 2:04; Seth Dunwoody (Cycling Ireland Junior) 8th at 2:09; Mark Dowling (All human-VeloRevolution) 9th at 2:13; Damien Clayton (Embark Spirit BSS) 10th at 2:16.

While it was a fantastic weekend of racing, it was a difficult way for Harvey to end the race today. However, he is a young rider with bags of talent and with an exciting season ahead as part of the Trinity Racing UCI Continental team. He is sure to bounce back strongly from his disappointment. For his part, Crockett rode a very good race to win outright while Warren can be very happy with 2nd overall and the young rider classification win.