Feeley wins the hard way in Kanturk but O'Shea and juniors hold firm

Daire Feeley wins the final stage after an epic chase on a day when only a very small number of C1s were able to get to the front of the race (Photo: Kanturk Bicycle Repair)

Daire Feeley (Burren CC) has won the final stage at the C1-C2 Kanturk Three on a day when the handicap almost undid the C1s, as it did on the opening stage of the race. However, only three of the C1 riders today, Sunday, made it the four minutes across to the C2s.

And when the scores were tallied at the end of 110km of tough racing, most of the fancied C1 riders in the race were more than 3½ minutes down. Race leader James O'Shea (VeloRevolution-Speed Queen) and the strong juniors just behind him all stood firm against an onslaught today.

Feeley's opening hour of the race was dogged with a mechanical issue as his gears threatened to derail his efforts. However, when he finally got sorted about 40km into the race, the C1 group he was in was still about 2:40 down on the C2s, who had a four-minute handicap today.

Feeley worked away on the front and soon found he had ridden away from the group. Rory Condon (Zappi Racing) and Padraig Moran (Orwell Wheelers CC) joined him and that was that.

The trio rode across to the lead group, putting in a very long and hard chase. And though they then tried to attack several times, in a bid to drop O'Shea and some of the others, they were closed down each time.

Feeley managed to win the group sprint for victory from Conor Regan, the Kilcullen CC Murphy's Geospatial junior who is really making a name for himself this year. Fellow junior rider Kristupas Martinkus of host club O'Leary Stone Kanturk rounded out the podium, a fine result.

First-year U23 Condon was next, in 4th place, followed by junior rider Noah Finn (Cycling Leinster), Brendan Reen (Sliabh Luachra Cycling Club) and teenager Tom Hughes, another of the Kilcullen junior hit team this season, in 7th.

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And then came the yellow-jerseyed O'Shea, finishing in 8th place and on the same time was winner Feeley, among the 17-rider group that went into the final fighting for the win.

That meant O'Shea had done enough to take a fantastic win this weekend; his first C1-C2 stage race victory coming just weeks after winning the C2 category at Dornan Rás Mumhan.

When the C2s were not caught on the opening stage, O'Shea attacked to win solo. He then defended his race lead on yesterday's split stage and again today, Monday.

The three C1s who got across to his group today could not drop him. And the juniors who started the stage just seconds off his yellow jersey also couldn't get away from him.

However, those juniors put in a great performance this weekend, over four hard stages, and they can be very happy with their ride, with four of them in the top six overall.

Hughes was 2nd overall at six seconds, maintaining the form that landed him a number of wins in the first few weekends of the campaign. Finn was 3rd at 29 seconds, Regan 4th at 32 seconds - then senior Reen 5th at 50 seconds - and Martinkus 6th at 51 seconds.

It was a weekend when the C2s and juniors got organised, rode strongly and reaped the rewards at the expense of their C1 rivals, who will need to get the work a bit earlier in their next handicapped events.