Irish road racing is back; Murnane straight out of the traps for victory

*Conor Murnane has wasted not time in taking his first win of the restarted Irish road racing season (File photo by Sean Rowe)*

Irish road racing is back after the Covid19 lock-down, with action getting underway again this evening at the Mondello Series where Conor Murnane scored another victory.

The UCD Cycling Club rider, who took several Mondello wins during a breakthrough season for him last year, was best this evening in the first open road race held in Ireland since mid March.

Murnane proved his worth after an aggressive race saw the
A1 group whittled down to about six or seven riders in the closing laps.

However, as what remained of that scratch group began the final lap they still hadn’t caught those who had started out in front; the A3s.

Indeed, going out onto that last lap the gap between the
smaller A1 group and the A3s was 25 seconds and it seemed the winner may come
from the lead group on the road.

But an all-out last lap and some attacking from the
heavy-hitters in the A1 group inched them up to the A3s.

Conn McDunphy attacked first from the A1 men with about
1.5km to go only to be countered by top track rider Fintan Ryan.

Murnane waited until those two put in their digs and when
he countered Ryan’s move he got a gap and drove hard for the line.

Related News

Lara Gillespie attacks Dolomite stage as Giro hits high mountains

Video - Ireland's Meehan climbs with best on brutal Alpine terrain

He caught the A3s on the final corner and despite the
effort he had put in to get away from the riders he had started with he still
had the legs to overhaul the A3 riders and take the victory.

Murnane took the win ahead of Fearghal Regan (Murphy Surveys Kilcullen CC) with Aaron Wade (Powerhouse Sport) rounding out the podium in the main event; a handicapped race for all categories apart from A4s.

John Mason (Strata3-VeloRevolution) was 4th with Gavin
Hendley (Lucan CRC) in 5th and Cian Keogh (Spellman-Dublin Port) in 6th place.

In the separate A4 race Toni Stojanov (Lucan CRC) proved
victorious from Daniel McGuinness (Clondalkin CC) and Cormac Durnin (Murphy
Surveys Kilcullen CC).

More to follow.