Liam Curley takes it all with huge final effort in brutal conditions | Video | Sticky Bottle

*Liam Curley leads the way as he heads towards stage victory and the final yellow jersey at the A1-A2 Newcastle West Stage Race organised by Newcastle West Wheelers (Photo: Ryan Byrne - Inpho)*

Liam Curley has pulled a huge final effort out of the bag at the Newcastle West Stage Race to claim the final yellow jersey and win today's stage in epic conditions in Co Limerick.

With the final stage of the A1-A2 race run off in very wet conditions, and taking place on last year's National Road Championships course, Curley showed his class to win big.

And while Chris McGlinchey had ridden so well to retain the yellow jersey he took when he won the opening TT stage, he lost that race lead today and had to be content with 9th overall.

Today's stage - some nine laps of a 17km circuit - saw the field split to pieces. And it was the men who were to the fore on the final laps that moved towards the top of the general classification.

Liam Curley of Spellman-Dublin Port takes the stage after a spirited final lap which saw him catch and over take the three man group. The calculations are being made but it looks Chris McGlinchey loses yellow to Curley. #NRS2021 pic.twitter.com/8o5w6whngu

— Cycling Ireland (@CyclingIreland) August 2, 2021

Liam Curley gets the verdict ahead of Mark Dowling; Curley also winning the race outright for his efforts today over the final two laps in a very wet Limerick

The day started with McGlinchey (Cycling Ulster) – the winner
of Friday’s 8.8km prologue TT – holding a lead of just eight seconds over Aaron
Wade (Ireland U23).

The big winner today, Curley of Spellman-Dublin Port, was
in 3rd place overall at just nine seconds. Then came Gareth O’Neill of Caldwell
Cycles in 4th just 18 seconds off yellow.

He was followed by stage 1 winner Daire Feeley (All
human-VeloRevolution) at 20 seconds, with Luke Smith (Ireland U23) on the same
time.

Given the gaps were so tight, and the severity of today’s 153km stage, everything was up for grabs starting out on the final leg.

Chris McGlinchey - with his blue rain jacket covering the yellow jersey - rode a great race over the last three days in defence of yellow. But the movement off the front today was hard to handle (Photo: Eamon Doody)

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Going out onto the last lap of the race today a three-man
move was clear; All human-VeloRevolution team mates Feeley and Mark Dowling up the road
with Caldwell’s O’Neill.

However, a chasing group was just over 30 seconds back as
they took the bell and the momentum at that point of the race was with those
chasers.

Curley and Wade had both managed to escape from the yellow jersey group with just over two laps remaining and they put a great effort in to catch the chasing group. Once they reached that group they had the added advantage of having team mates there.

Spellman-Dublin Port's Curley had Darragh McCarter and Wade had Tom Moriarty and John Buller, who were on U23 international duty with him this weekend.

And on the final lap, that group of chasers caught the leading trio – who had been out there for a long time. It was when the catch was made, deep inside the final 10km, that Curley made the key move.

Despite having already spent a portion of such a hard stage out front in a small group, Dowling still had the legs to attack, with Curley going with him. Those two stayed out front until the finish, where Curley took the sprint for the stage victory, with Dowling 2^nd on the same time.

With the overall victory hanging in the balance, and four hard days of racing in the legs, the group behind the leading duo split on the run in. O’Neill got clear alone to finish in 3rd place at 18 seconds. Next was Wade, also on his own, in 4th place at 33 seconds.

And then came a very strong trio; Curley’s Spellman Dublin Port team mate Darragh McCarter, Feeley and Conor Hennebry (Dan Morrissey-McCarthy Insurance Group-Pactimo) filling places 5th to 7th at 40 seconds.

Those gaps meant Curley ran out the overall winner, by 27 seconds from O’Neill and with Wade rounding out the GC podium at 32 seconds.

McGlinchey endured a tough day, and once the race got away from him up the road, the group he was stuck in lost a lot of time; finishing some 3:42 down and sprinting for 13th place.

O'Neill may have lost out today in the battle for the final yellow jersey, but as the race was the second round of the Cycling Ireland National Road Series the Caldwell Cycles man takes the leader's jersey in that competition.