While the gaps at the front of Gorey Three Day stage 1 on Saturday were big, they were not exactly shocking. Conor Murphy (Caldwell Cycles) is a first-year junior shaping up as a special talent.
And the fact he reached the chequered flag solo - by over two minutes - was impressive, though not exactly a major surprise. Then came the riders Murphy had been with until inside the last 10km. They trailed in just over two minutes back. The next 45 riders all finished at staggered gaps up to five minutes behind the stage winner.
However, the next riders home were much further back - just over 10 minutes. And when one looks to the back end of the results, a very large number of riders were over an hour down. They would have been eliminated - for being outside the time cut - on another day. However, they have been permitted to continue in the race.
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But how precisely could 30 riders - all of them men, rather than the women who got a handicap - finish over an hour down when the winner's time was 2hrs 21mins?
The short answer is that about 20 to 25 riders ripped the legs off everyone else in the field. They did so because they were much stronger, but also because a combination of crosswinds, headwinds and a tailwind - that ramped up the pace at times - did serious damage.
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Conditions were chilly, with rain, and the attacks were on from the start. The field split into three large groups very early; and that latter point was the key. Though the race was run over four laps of the near 25km course - a 98.5km stage in total - the third group on the road fell way behind very, very early. And the front group - comprised of a clutch of really hungry and strong young guns - raced eyeballs out from gun to tape.
Through the stage the gap between the leaders - four of whom eventually pressed on to compete for victory - and the back-markers, extended significantly, with heads dropping at the back. And as the last group came through the finish area on the Craanford circuit to start their final lap, the commissaires made a decision to pull them out of the stage.
It meant the hour time gap was applied to them by the commissaires; perhaps fair, seeing as they did not complete such a large section of the opening stage.
Up front, eventual stage winner Murphy attacked through the finishing straight in a bid to get the climbers' points available on the climb and once he had a gap he kept going. His dominant ride on the final lap resulted in him distancing everyone and gaining over two minutes on the nearest chasers.
Hudson Henry (Halesowen A & CC), who had been very aggressive from the start of the stage - and caused much of the early damage - took 2nd place, some 2:19 down on Murphy. Tadhg Killeen (Kilcullen Cycling Club Murphy Geospacial) was 3rd at 2:23.
He was followed by Conor Dooney (Foyle CC), on the same time, and then Mark Donelly-Orr of Lucan Cycling Road Club (2:34), Killian O'Brien of Leinster (2:57), Toby Sweetman of VC Glendale (2:59) and Luke Manning of Halesowen A & CC at 3:01.
