David Gaffney, a junior rider who represented Ireland for the first time on the road last week, has taken the biggest win of his racing career with a huge effort on the final climb of the A3-Junior Ken Duff Memorial in Co Wicklow.
The 17-year-old had a lot to do on the Shay Elliott climb to the finish in the Bray Wheelers promotion on Sunday as a breakaway was still well clear, with well over one minute in hand, by the time the final ascent began.
And while Gaffney (Team 31 Jolly Cycles) had been active in the attacks off the front of the bunch, in an effort to get a chasing group going to bridge to the leaders, he clearly had plenty in the tank left for the final climb.
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Once the road kicked up on the Drumgoff ascent, he moved clear of what remained of the peloton, with Willem O'Connor (JEGG-DJR Academy) staying with him for longest.
However, once Gaffney found himself alone on the climb, he hunted down the five breakaway men ahead of him, catching three and then finally getting up to Matthew Walls (Lucan Cycling Road Club) and Luca Holmes (Spellman-Dublin Port).
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Dungarvan's Gaffney caught Walls and Holmes with over 1km to go; pressing on the pedals as he did so and already putting them under pressure.
He then kicked on solo and with about 500m remaining when he took a glance back he could see he had established a race-winning advantage. Behind him, Walls distanced Holmes on the last uphill stretch to the line to settle the fight for 2nd and 3rd.
The A3-Junior race competed for 76km; racing out of Laragh to the Ballinaclash circuit - for two passages of that 24km loop - before leaving that circuit for the final ascent up the climb.
A five-man breakaway went clear on the first of the two laps and managed to pull out a gap of 1:40 on the ever-dwindling bunch. In that breakaway were eventual runner-up and 3rd-placed finishing Walls and Holmes, along with Ciaran Scanlon (UCD Cycling Club) and two others.
And though they worked hard to build and then maintain and advantage through the race, it wasn't enough to hold off the strongest of the riders chasing behind.
While Gaffney caught and passed all five out front to win, from Walls and Holmes, Michael Collins of 4 Michael Collins of Newcastlewest CC also got up to the leaders, to place 4th. David Harrington (Orwell Wheelers) was 5th, with UCD's Scanlon in 6th place.
