Kennedy, McGarry win in Kanturk but O'Shea maintains grip on yellow

James O'Shea, far right in the yellow jersey, still holds the race lead in the C1-C2 Kanturk Three on a day when Paul Kennedy and Mark McGarry took the stage honours (Photo with thanks to Kanturk Bicycle Repair)

Paul Kennedy (Burren CC) took perhaps the most predictable result of the weekend in winning the TT at the C1-C2 Kanturk Three Day on Sunday morning while Mark McGarry (Dan Morrissey-Pissei) stepped in the afternoon to take a long overdue win the stage 3 road race.

But after another all-out day of racing, and three of the four stages now completed, James O'Shea (VeloRevolution-SpeedQueen) still holds the race leader's jersey.

Kennedy, who won Rás Maigh Eo overall earlier this season via TT stage victory, came away with his latest win in the 7.78km TT test this morning – taking it by 7.5 seconds from Liam Crowley (Orwell Wheelers).

Evan Keane (Orwell Wheelers) was 3rd, at eight seconds, with then a bigger gap back to 4th placed Daire Feeley, and the rest of the pack; the Burren CC man 30 seconds down.

Stage 1 winner and race leader, James O'Shea (VeloRevolution-Speed Queen), put in a solid test, finishing in 10th place at 50 seconds. And though that was a decent chunk of time to lose when defending a race lead, he still ended the day in yellow.

In the afternoon road stage today, Sunday, McGarry came away with victory, in wet conditions after 97km of racing on the near-14km Banteer circuit, after taking the initiative late in the day.

Related News

Sean Kelly | "Seth Dunwoody is better than I was at 20, he's a big talent"

Ben Healy, Richard Carapaz named to lead 'EF' challenge at Tour de France

He attacked hard with about 1km to go in a bid to get across to a group of seven riders who managed to give the bunch the slip late in the day. Once he caught them, he went again with his sprint effort and claimed victory.

Paul Kennedy is being coached by Cian Keogh this year and his TT position - in a TT where road bikes had to be used - very much has a Keogh look to it; Kennedy winning again against the watch (Photo: Kanturk Bicycle Repair)

McGarry blasted in to win from Crowley, Mark Shannon (Burren CC), Kennedy, Sean O'Kane (Orwell), Keane, Rory Condon (Zappi Racing) and Feeley. They finished six seconds up on the bunch.

That bunch was led in by Kris Martinkus (O'Leary Stone Kanturk). Conor Regan, the Kilcullen CC Murphy Geospatial junior who was 4th overall, rounded out the top 10. Race leader O'Shea was in 16th, also at six seconds.

O’Shea still has yellow by just six seconds from one of the juniors of the season so far, Tom Hughes (Kilcullen CC Murphy Geospatial) - Hughes doing well in this morning's TT to take 8th.

The top eight overall are still those riders who were in the C2 group that finished 1:45 up on the C1s after getting a four-minute handicap on stage 1. Noah Finn (Cycling Leinster) is 3rd at overall at 29 seconds, with Regan 4th at 36 seconds.

Brendan Reen (Sliabh Luachra Cycling Club) is 5th at 50 seconds and Harry Parnell (Cycling Leinster) in 6th at 51 seconds. Best of the C1s is Orwell's Crowell, in 9th and still 59 seconds down ahead of the final stage tomorrow.