Conn McDunphy, the former Irish elite TT champion riding for Skyline Cadence, has taken a brilliant stage win at Rás Tailteann into Sneem after he and teenager Liam O'Brien (Team Ireland) seized their chance in a long-range two-man breakaway.
The duo, who were 1st and 2nd on the stage today, initially made the front selection on the first cat 1 climb of this race. They then kept their powder dry until the next ascent before striking just after the summit to pull out their advantage.
And though they gained 1:40 at one point on a group of about 25 chasers, that was eventually pegged back a little, though they had too much class today for the men back the road trying to close them down.
However, while the Irish duo battled it out for victory, their gap on the day was just about too short for either of them to take the yellow jersey. George Peden (Team PB Performance) took off from the chasing group and placed 3rd on the stage, just 30 seconds down.
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And then two further seconds later came that chasing group; Dillon Corkery (Team Ireland) winning the sprinting from a chasing group for the second day. In that group was Dom Jackson, the Foran CC rider who was present in yesterday's winning the breakaway.
And that means the Briton takes yellow, though he is on the same time as O'Brien and McDunphy, who have now moved up to 2nd and 3rd overall. Then comes Corkery, the defending champion, in 4th at two seconds.
How it unfolded
After 107km of racing, the field hit the Cat 1 climb of Ballaghasheen, at almost 2km in length, with the race exploding from that point. As the dust - and bodies - settled after the climb, it emerged a front group of 27 riders had formed.
Absent from that leading group was race leader Alex Pritchard (Richardsons Trek DAS), who was among those spat out the back door as the road kicked up. However, Pritchard, yesterday's stage winner, never gave up; getting himself into a chasing group that proved dogged in their pursuit of those ahead.
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Conn McDunphy Skyline Cadence
Stage 2 winner Rás Tailteann 2024#Rás2024 #RásTailteann pic.twitter.com/HMJwPQBain
— Rás Tailteann (@rastailteann) May 23, 2024
About 25km after he had been dropped, the leaders reached the cat 2 climb of Coomakista. And though last year's stage 1 winner, and long-time yellow jersey Conor McGoldrick (Richardsons Trek DAS) took maximum points over the top, it was just after the climb was crested that two of the dangermen of this race made their move.
Teenager Liam O'Brien (Team Ireland) was one of them, aided and abetted by Conn McDunphy (Skyline Candence); the quality duo pushing on to eventually build a gap of one minute on the group they had attacked. And though Pritchard had fallen two minutes behind the 27-rider group, he rallied well and the group he was in began closing in.
McDunphy and O'Brien combined really well up front and with 165km raced, just as they were about to enter the Sneem circuit, they had 1:25 on the large chasing group, which the yellow jersey continued to gain on further back the road.
News soon filtered through that gap was up to 1:40 on the large chasing group. And now Pritchard, putting in a great comeback ride, was just 30 seconds behind those chasers, though still obviously more than two minutes behind the duo at the front of the race.
However, with 10km to go, the leaders' advantage had been closed down considerably, with now just one minute in hand over the chasers. With 174km completed, the leading pair began the final categorised climb of the day, the cat 3 of Letterfinish, at the top of which there was just under 6km remaining to the chequered flag back in Sneem.
And though that gap came down further by the time the leaders reached the finish line for the second and final time, they held on, with McDunphy winning it from young O'Brien.
More to come.
