Martin O'Loughlin (centre) proved quickest in the fast finale of the opening stage at the O'Leary Stone-Kanturk Three Day this afternoon, Saturday.
Just a couple of hours after veteran rider Greg Swinand took the opening stage at the Tour of Ulster, at the other end of the country it was his fellow supervet Martin O’Loughlin who drew first blood at the O’Leary Stone-Kanturk Three Day.
The Carrick Iverk Produce man, a winner of the St Patrick’s Day race in Carrick already this year, bided his time to take the victory from David McCarthy (NRPT-Standard Life) and Bryan Long (St Finbar’s).
O’Loughlin was quickest to the line in the bunch sprint that settled the stage despite some really aggressive riding throughout the 90km circuit race and a very promising break going away and staying clear for almost 30km.
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The opening stage consisted of three 30km laps of a testing circuit with a climb and two testing drags to be negotiated each time, which saw plenty of attacking from the start.
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However, it was not until the field was going out to start its third lap that a really threatening looking breakaway moved clear. There were seven riders in it and that move gained around one minute.
However, with some very strong men in the bunch behind including home rider and runner-up at the Shay Elliott Memorial last Saturday Eddie Dunbar, the gap was whittled down as the stage end approached and with around 5km remaining the escapees were reabsorbed into the bunch.
That set the scene for a bunch sprint, and so it came to pass. Former elite international O'Loughlin bided his time well and up the incline to the finish line he judged it best and had the power and speed to take a great win. McCarthy was just behind with Long a close third.
The racing continues tomorrow with a morning time trial followed by an afternoon road stage, and concludes with a road stage on Sunday.
As well as the main A2-A3 race, there is also a separate A4 race, news of which we will bring you later as it had not concluded at the time of writing.
Lots more later.
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