Dean Harvey (18) takes control with stage win in yellow jersey in Limerick

*Dean Harvey near the front as the Irish team sets the pace on the front of the peloton in Limerick today (Photo: Eamon Doody)*

Dean Harvey has enjoyed a dream outing
for the Irish team so far this weekend in Limerick; the VC Glendale man winning
his second stage from two earlier today.

Harvey, an 18-year-old from Belfast, claimed the A3-Junior Newcastle West Stage Race yellow jersey when he won yesterday’s opening 8.8km prologue TT. And he went into today’s stage in the Newcastle West Wheelers promotion clearly intent on being aggressive rather than sitting and waiting to defend his yellow jersey.

With the A3 and junior race taking on
five laps of the 25km today, with a climb each time, there was always going to
be a tough day in store.

However, the attacks came early, with
a five-man breakaway getting up the road soon after the race started and
enjoying a long stint out front leading the race.

The national team in the race – made up of Harvey, Ruairi Byrne, Eoghan Cooke, Samuel Moloney and Rowan Montgomery – did not panic; instead riding very well as a unit.

*About 20 riders got off the front in today's stage 1 in Broadford but as the race progressed the number of men in the yellow jersey group was whittled right down (Photo: Eamon Doody)*

On the second lap up the climb the
national team hit the front with a view to making it as hard as possible, and
when they neared the top of the climb the yellow jersey was on the move.

Harvey waited until the steepest
section before pulling the trigger, in a move that split the bunch and saw a
group of about 15 go clear in pursuit of those already up the road.

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And that was effectively the way it
stayed for the remainder of the race, though some of those riders who initially
made the large breakaway lost their place in it as the stage progressed.

Up the road were: Vladislav Evseev (Orwell Wheelers Cycling Club), Padraig O’Sullivan (Limerick Cycling Club), David Shine (O'Leary Stone Kanturk), Damien Culhane (Newcastle West Cycling Club), Andrew Ryan (Orwell Wheelers Cycling Club), Ruairi Byrne (Junior National Development Team), Sam Bolger (Killarney Cycling Club), Jamie Meehan (VC Glendale), Ruairi Murphy (O'Leary Stone Kanturk), Tom Shanahan (Limerick Cycling Club), Derek Joyce (Derek Galway Bay CC), John Hodge (Panduit Carrick Wheelers), Pierre-Alexandre Jarno (Un-Attached Munster) and Mark O’Donovan (Blarney Cycling Club).

*The Irish junior team in the race is made up of Dean Harvey, Ruairi Byrne, Eoghan Cooke, Samuel Moloney and Rowan Montgomery (Photo: Eamon Doody)*

Harvey then waited for the final lap
and on the last passage of the climb he repeated his early attack; going clear
solo, by which time the front of the race had blown apart.

On the line Harvey had 25 seconds to
spare over a seven-man chasing group that emerged from the intense racing on
the final lap; former Masters national road race champion Hodge taking the sprint
for 2nd place from Jarno.

The others in
that chasing group, in finishing order, were: O’Donovan in 4th place, Ryan in
5th, Byrne in 6th, Bolger in 7th and Meehan in 8th while Murphy was just off
the back of the group, by 13 seconds, and claimed 9th.

There was then a
big gap, of over three minutes, back to the next men on the road while the
bunch was 8½ minutes down on the stage winner.

Harvey now
leaders overall from his Irish junior squad team mate Ruairi Byrne, with 33
seconds between the two riders.

Orwell’s Ryan is
3^rd at 48 seconds while Killarney’s Bolger is in 4^th at
58 seconds and Blarney’s O’Donovan in 5^th at 1:05 with two stages
remaining.