Daire Feeley and Ben Walsh battle it out for victory in Co Mayo

*Daire Feeley has gone head-to-head with Ben Walsh and beaten him for victory in the John Ferguson Cup in Co Mayo (Photo: Sean Rowe)*

Daire Feeley (All human-VeloRevolution) has won the John Ferguson Cup after a two-up battle with Ben Walsh (EvoPro Racing) in Cong, Co Mayo, last night.

The winner and runner-up got clear in the winning breakaway before escaping from it and building an unassailable lead, with Feeley then beating Walsh in a sprint finish.

Féidhlim Dignan (Blarney Cycling Club) was next of the original breakaway men, taking 3rd place from Tom Regan (Seven Springs CC), Cillian Murphy (Galway Bay CC) and Daniel Bresnan (Greenmount CA).

With four laps of a 29km rolling circuit to race, and eight-man breakaway got away very early in the contest, with only about 10km covered. While Walsh and Feeley were in that move, they attacked it with about 40km to go.

Once clear in a two-man move they worked together to open a gap on he chasing group. And while Feeley tried to get away from Walsh a number of times in the last lap, the EvoPro Racing man was able to match his rival.