With Ben Healy wearing yellow into the final day’s racing another Irish teenager, JB Murphy, was at the head of affairs winning the last stage of Rás Mumhan.
Murphy (Team Leinster) broke clear today on the final
stage into Killorglin with Sean Hahessy of Dan Morrissey-MIG-Pactimo.
But it was the younger rider, Murphy, who pressed on and
took the biggest win of his career at the finish.
He and Hahessy arrived at stage end together; Murphy leading
out around the final corner and up the hill to the finish on the Donal Crowley
circuit to claim victory.
Hahessy was right behind him in 2nd place and a short
time later Alexander Konijn of West Frisia claimed 3rd place on the stage.
Murphy won medals on the track as a junior at the
Europeans and Worlds. And Hahessy is one of the best road riders in the
country, as well as a sighted pilot on the international paracycling team.
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Once they broke clear in the first half of the stage from a large breakaway group of about 20 they proved too strong for those chasing them down.
Ben Healy, riding for Team Ireland, held onto his race
lead to claim the Rás Mumhan title for 2019. He was in the group sprinting for
4th place, doing enough to secure the overall title.
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Daniel Bigham of Ribble Pro Cycling claimed the mountains
classification. His team mate, and stage 1 winner and former yellow jersey,
Alex Luhrs won the points classification.
As well as claiming the overall title, Healy was also
best in the young rider classification. And Leinster’s Cian May wrapped up
victory in the cat 2 classification.
Ribble Pro Cycling, who rode so well on the opening two
stages, were undone on yesterday’s queen stage when Healy broke clear with Mark
Dowling (Leinster).
They gained almost one minute on a five-man chased group
containing yellow jersey Luhrs.
That margin put Ben Healy (18) into the yellow jersey as
he had been the only rider to finish with Luhrs and Bigham in a three-man
winning breakaway on stage 1 last Friday.
However, while the Ribble riders lost the yellow jersey yesterday,
they won the team classification as well as the points and climbers’
competitions.
Healy won the overall by 41 seconds from Luhrs, with
Dowling in 3rd place some 1:36 off the yellow jersey.
Luhrs lost all of his time in the general classification
to Healy on stage 3 while Dowling fell behind Healy on stage 1.
More to come.
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