In-form Páidí Ó Brien takes second win in four days at Cork Champs; flying 16-year-old Eddie Dunbar second

Páidí Ó Brien was a winner in Millstreet at the weekend and was at it again on Tuesday, taking the Cork County Championships, where Eddie Dunbar was second over the line but awarded the A3 title. O'Brien appears to be in great form after a recent stint in Belgium and should pick off some more wins before the summer is out.

Páidí Ó Brien took his second win in four days when he won the showpiece race at the Cork County Cycling championships in Fermoy last night, Tuesday.

The former An Post-Sean Kelly professional, now riding with Planet Tri Racing team at home, just about edged recently crowned Junior Tour winner Eddie Dunbar (O’Leary’s Stone Kanturk) on the line with Mick Fitzgerald of the host club in third.

That trio, all of whom have been in fantastic form this season, had broken away from the field on the third of six laps and pulled out a 50-second gap on a four-man chase group behind.

The race was for the Matt Linehan Shield which O’Brien won courtesy of his devastating finishing kick. Dunbar kept him honest in the finale but O’Brien just found another gear when it mattered.

But it was another superb showing from the 16-year-old Dunbar who shows no signs of fatigue after a gruelling Junior Tour of Ireland last week.

Dunbar instigated the move on a perfect night for racing, with several trying to bridge, and the majority failing.

O’Brien’s kick took him across while Fitzgerald, who won the Leahy Cup last month, is in similarly immense shape after another very good An Post Rás by him.

The race was a massed start with the A1s, A2s and A3s fighting it out over six short laps which featured two drags. So there were three separate races, with the winner receiving the aforementioned Shield.

On the fourth lap, after a period of intense attacking from Visit Nenagh/Team DMG’s Richard Hooton, Olan Barrett (Aquablue) counter-attacked, with Brian Canty jumping across to him immediately and Laurent Dumoulin (O’Leary’s Stone Kanturk) and Michael Crowley (Planet Tri) also bridging.

The latter had O’Brien up the road and so wasn’t obliged to work, while the other three shared the workload — Barrett in particular doing some strong pulls.

Behind, Eddie Barry almost bridged but wasn’t given any leeway and then the bunch stalled, allowing the seven up front (4 and 3) to pull away.

There was never any hope of them merging, with the three up front pulling out a bigger gap as the laps ticked down. So the fight for the A2 race was a battle between Canty and Dumoulin, with the former just shading it.

Crowley was fourth on the night and second A3 - because Dunbar was up the road. But it was another good showing from the Planet Tri man, part of a team that is enjoying a very good debut season.

In the A4 race, David Shea of Visit Nenagh-Team DMG was quickest to the line, seeing off Mark Calnan (De Rone Vlaanderen) and Niall Dunne (Iverk Produce Carrick Wheelers) in a thrilling bunch sprint.