Just as he had done at Kerryman's Table 24 hours earlier, Tom Martin mowed down his rivals on stage 4 of Dornan Rás Mumhan this afternoon to take his second stage victory and clinch the overall title.
Martin, a British rider guesting with Spellman Dublin Port this weekend, really took on the race; going on the attack and simply having too much power on the Killorglin stage for his rivals to handle. His breakaway heroics today also saw him clinch the climbers' and points classifications.
However, though none of the stages this year went to Irish riders, there were some very positive signs for Irish cycling as several of our young riders really shone, including Niall McLoughlin (Connacht Cycling), Odhran Doogan (Caldwell Cycles), Patrick O'Loughlin (Munster Dornan) and Willem O'Connor (Velo Performance); the latter the breakthrough rider of the weekend.
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Today the riders finished an aggressive - and very wet - edition of Rás Mumhan with the traditional big finish around the Donal McKenna Circuit in Killorglin eight times, having earlier raced the bigger loop to Beaufort three times for 113km in the saddle.
With two laps of the Killorglin circuit completed, Martin got clear in a small breakaway that also contained Alexandre Mayer (Foran CT), Jake Hales (Ride Revolution) and Will Truelove (Halesowen-Mapei). They eked out a gap of 10-15 seconds, with Martin doing the lion's share of the work before going solo on the third lap.
He was clearly determined today to try and go for broke to win the race having started the stage 2nd overall and 25 seconds down on yellow jersey Jamie Whitcher (Composite Black). With four laps to go, Martin had 30 seconds on the bunch and was yellow jersey on the road, but it was unclear if he could keep it going all the way to the finish.
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However, though Whitcher did his best to drag Martin back, he couldn't do it. The Spellman Dublin Port man - who usually rides for Wheelbase Cabtech in Britain - claimed victory by 25 seconds from George Kimber (Spirit Racing), with Niall McLoughlin (Connacht) taking 3rd at 28 seconds.
Behind McLoughlin - who is looking back to his best after a season lost to illness in 2024 - came Tom Armstrong (Spellman Dublin Port), Odhran Doogan (Caldwell Cycles) with Patrick O'Loughlin (Munster Dornan) rounding out the top six.
Today's yellow jersey, Whitcher, was back in 44th place some 28 seconds down on Martin, and so lost his race lead; a tough blow for him, especially as he had ridden so hard over the last couple of stages to defend it.
In the end, Martin took the overall victory by eight seconds from Whitcher, with Irish teenager Willem O'Connor finishing 3rd at 38 seconds. There were four other Irish riders in the top 10 in the final GC, including former overall winner Lindsay Watson (Caldwell Cycles) in 5th at 1:16.
Daire Feeley (Burren CC) was 6th at 1:17 with Odhran Doogan (Caldwell Cycles) 9th at 2:18 and Liam Crowley (Munster Dornan) 10th at 2:57. Curtis Neill (Caldwell Cycles) just missed out on a top 10, finishing 11th at 3:48.
Neill was among the Irish riders jumping off the front of the bunch today as Martin was leading the race and riding away to stage and overall victory. Others on the attack included Feeley, Crowley, Doogan, Ronan Tuomey (O'Leary Stone Kanturk), Ruairi Byrne (UCD Cycling Club) and Mitchell McLaughlin (Spellman Dublin Port).
- For full final stage and classification results, please follow this link
