With just 20 seconds covering the top eight riders overall going into the final stage of the Gorey Three Day today, the race looked nicely poised for a big final battle. And so it came to pass; attacks being fired off the front until a decisive breakaway, containing several dangermen, got clear to share the spoils.
While stage 1 winner, and stage 3 runner-up, Conor Prendergast (Galway Bay CC) had the race lead going into today's finale, the gaps were so narrow his yellow jersey looked like a heavy weight to carry in the final battle. Prendergast and some of the others who shone this weekend - Matthew Hoare (Cycling Leinster), stage 2 winner Darragh Doherty (Flanders Color Defever Team), Killian O'Brien (Cycling Leinster) and stage 3 victory Curtis Neill (Team Caldwell Cycles) - got stranded in the bunch when the breakaway went clear.
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And as they marked each other, the men and woman up front - including women's overall winner Linda Kelly (Spin the Bean Coffee) - committed and made the most of their opportunity. Lucan CRC had two key riders in that winning move in Gavin Hendley and Peter Kirwan; the latter who had held yellow on the stage 3 TT before losing it to Prendergast.
Hendley and Kirwan rode a brilliant race today; Hendley winning the stage and Kirwan sealing overall victory. Meanwhile, young Josh Callaly, riding for the Cycling Leinster junior team, claimed 2nd on the stage, which moved him up to 2nd overall. That was a fine showing by the youngest rider in the race and one that marks him out as one to watch.
The 101km final stage - which started and finished in Craanford and included three laps of a circuit - saw eventual stage winner Hendley up the road in a breakaway on the opening lap. Callaly soon sensed the danger and had the smarts, and legs, to go after that move, with Kirwan following.
They got across to the breakaway, making for a group of almost 20 riders, including some of the strongest women in the race who were caught by the breakaway; five of them surviving all the way.
The first four men on general classification starting out this morning - Prendergast, Hoare, Doherty and O'Brien - were all in the bunch. Kirwan was next best overall, 5th at 18 seconds, meaning he was in the driving seat up the road and riding into yellow.
Back in the bunch, his Lucan CRC team mates were marking any counter attacks. Their work, coupled with the commitment up the road, saw the breakaway gain around three minutes at one point. And though that gap was almost halved by the finish, the stage result turned the top of the general classification on its head.
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In the closing stages today, Hendley attacked with about 7km to go while the others in the breakaway chased him and Kirwan - yellow jersey on the road for much of the stage - sat tight. Hendley was eventually caught, but when he was he attacked again. This time the breakaway stalled and the Lucan CRC rider put his head down for the line and made it solo by four seconds.
Callaly took the sprint for 2nd place from the 14-rider chasing group with Mikey Flaherty (Team Dan Morrissey-Primor by Pissei) 3rd. Jake Bickerdike (Athy Wheelers Cycling Club) was 4th while Aoife O'Brien (Spellman-Dublin Port) got up in the sprint for 5th.
Rory Devlin (Un-Attached Ulster) was 6th on the stage, Caoimhe O'Brien (Un-Attached Leinster) 7th, Emma Jeffers (Unattached) 8th, Ruairí Woods (Spellman-Dublin Port) 9th and Johnny McRoberts (Banbridge CC) 10th.
Behind the breakaway, the rest of the race blew to pieces, though most of the general classification men were in the second group on the road. They were led in by Darragh Doherty from Curtis Neill, who finished 19th and 20th on the stage. Yellow jersey Prendergast was in that group, finishing 32nd on the stage at 1:46 and dropping down to 7th overall.
In the final general classification, it was today's breakaway riders who emerged best. Kirwan won overall by four seconds from Callaly, with Flaherty placing 3rd at 14 seconds.
Devlin was 4th at 27 seconds with junior rider Daniel Scott (Inspired Cycling) putting in a very good showing to place 5th at 46 seconds; the 16-year-old also making the winning breakaway today. Bickerdike was 6th at 52 seconds followed by Prendergast - 7th at 1:24. Doherty was next - 8th at 1:29 - with O'Brien 9th at 1:35 while Neill was 10th at 1:39.
In the women's race, Kelly ran out the overall winner by 42 seconds from Caoimhe O'Brien. Aoife O'Brien was 3rd, at 1:07, followed by Orla Walsh (UCD Cycling Club) - 4th at 1:09 - and Emma Jeffers 5th at 1:11.
- For full stage 4 results and the final general classification, please follow this link.
