Mark Dowling has taken the queen stage at Kerry Group Rás Mumhan after breaking clear with 18-year-old Ben Healy over the Coom an Easpaigh cat 1 climb.
The leading duo put their heads down and pulled out a gap
that exceeded a minute over a chasing group that included stage 1 winner and
yellow jersey Alex Luhrs of Ribble Pro.
However, Luhrs was isolated in that seven-man chasing
group; with no team mates for company for the first time this weekend.
Up front, Healy (Team Ireland) and Dowling (Team
Leinster) put their heads down and really made it count.
At the finish former Rás Mumhan champion Dowling took the
stage win, his second of the 2019 season.
But because Healy had been in the winning breakaway with
Luhrs and Daniel Bigham on stage 1, he took the yellow jersey.
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Last year’s race winner, Conor Hennebry of Dan Morrissey-MIG-Pactimo, attacked the chase group and gained time on it to keep his hopes alive after 157km.
Bigham retains the climbers' classification jersey and Healy leads overall and also has the young rider classification.
Cian May of Leinster put in a great ride today and he leads the cat 2 classification overall with just one last stage to come.
More to come.
How stage 3 into Waterville unfolded
The first hour of racing in the 154.7km stage starting
and finishing in Waterville was marked with plenty of aggression; the field
lining out and some riders being dropped very early the order of the day.
However, the Ribble Pro team of yellow jersey and stage 1
winner Alex Luhrs was present on the front; getting in the moves, chasing down
and generally marking the action off the front.
Over the Kilurley cat 2 climb the field split in two, with climbers’ classification leader Daniel Bigham (Ribble Pro) taking maximum points from Rás Mumhan defending champion Conor Hennebry (Dan Morrissey-MIG-Pactimo) and race leader Luhrs.
The front group of 50 after the climb then further split
in two; with a group of about 20 first on the road as the race headed for
Valentia Island on a beautiful day for racing in Kerry.
With 40km raced and the sun shining the gap between the
two groups first and second on the road was about 50 seconds.
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On the Valentia cat 2 climb Bigham led again over the top
from Luhrs and Liam Holohan (Holohan Coaching Race Team).
With 95kn to go, and some short-live attacks going off
the front, the front group numbered 24 men and had a gap of just under two minutes
on the bunch; the field having regrouped a little behind them.
The Dutch West Frisia team then took up the pace setting
on the front of the lead group, with Ribble and Team Ireland being sure to mark
them.
After that period of activity it was Matthew Sparrow of
Team Ireland and former Rás Mumhan stage winner Anto Walsh (Dan
Morrissey-MIG-Pactimo) who broke clear and were leading the race.
They did well; pulling out 30 seconds on the group them
had left as they hit Caherciveen, and that extended a little further to 40
seconds with 75km completed and Chris Childs (Holohan) bridged across to them.
Sean Hahessy (Dan Morrissey-MIG-Pactimo) tried to bridge
across and almost made it as the race leader also pushed the pace in pursuit of
the three leaders.
However, those efforts came to nothing as the race headed
for the big one – the cat 1 Coom an Easpaigh – the three leaders still had
about 20 seconds on the yellow jersey group, with the bunch already over six
minutes back.
However, by the time they started the climb the leaders
were caught and it was very much a question of ‘game on’ for the strongest men
up in the lead group.
While the sun had been out earlier, the riders were
greeted by mist on the climb. And on the incline and down the other side it was
3rd and 4th placed overall riders – Mark Dowling of Leinster and Ben Healy of
Team Ireland – who broke clear of the yellow jersey group.
They quickly pulled out a gap; Dowling leading over the
top of the climb from Healy with race leader Luhrs third but at a distance.
As the two leaders pressed on a seven-man chase group
established behind with a gap of 50 seconds between the two groups.
In that chase group was: race leader Alex Luhrs, George Evans
of Active Edge, Oliver Hayward of Holohan Coaching, Alex Konijn of West Frisia,
last year’s winner Conor Hennebry, Chris McNamara of Surrey League and John
Hale of Zero Bicycle.
While that was a strong group, for the first time in Rás
Mumhan Luhrs was isolated, with no Ribble team mates to help in the chase.
Dowling and Healy did not need to be told to take
advantage; the former Rás Mumhan champion and the up and coming Irish teenager
putting their heads down and pulling the gap out to over one minute on the
chasers.
Behind them, and sensing the race was getting away from
him, Conor Hennebry took flight from the yellow jersey group and went off in
solo pursuit of the two leaders.
And that’s how it stayed to the finish into Waterville;
Dowling beating Healy to the victory but Healy taking over the race lead after
he made the three-rider winning breakaway on stage 1 with Luhrs and Bigham of
Ribble.
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