Conn McDunphy is in the yellow jersey after the first two stages, of three, at Rás Mhaigh Eo after he and his Team Skyline team mates took advantage of the crosswinds during the road stage early on Saturday.
McDunphy, the former Irish elite TT champion, then made the most of his opportunity after making the breakaway to go it alone and take stage victory solo, not to mention a big time advantage as the race split to pieces.
And in the evening TT, over 7km, he consolidated his race lead, telling stickybottle he had recovered from an illness that hampered his recent efforts at Tour of Rhodes (2.2), though he was still very happy with his early season form.
"We came out of Westport pretty fast with the tailwind," he said of the 110.7km stage 1, where the breeze played a big part. "It was handicapped so we had to close nine minutes to the C3s. We caught them as he hit the coast road, about 50km in, and then it was always going to be a full crosswind there.
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"We just committed in the wind. Riding in the wind is something you need to learn and I think lots of riders don't have the experience of racing in the crosswinds so we used that to our advantage. We pinned it in the gutter and chaos happened."
McDunphy said while his Skyline team was hoping to get all of its riders into a breakaway at that point, things became chaotic when the C1s caught the C3s on narrow roads. Paul Kennedy was the first Skyline rider to get up the road, followed by McDunphy and Ronan O'Connor.
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They were joined by Luke Smith (Moynalty CC), with the group then reducing to three. McDunphy, O'Connor and Smith worked well up front, though the latter had the unenviably task of being away with rides like O'Connor and McDunphy; two heavy-hitting team mates.
"We just put the head down for the line," said McDunphy. "And then with about 10-12k to go I went over the top of Luke, because he was probably going to beat myself and Ronan in a sprint."
Once he made his move, McDunphy slipped in his powerful TT mode and rode away to win by over a minute, with O'Connor also managing to shake off Smith in the battle for 2nd and 3rd.
McDunphy crossed the line solo with with 1:01 to spare over team mate, O'Connor, with Smith in 3rd at 1:29. Another of the Team Skyline men, Cian Keogh, was 4th at 3:10, finishing alongside Eoin Kelly (UCD Cycling Club).
Willem O'Connor (Velo Performance) was just three seconds behind them in 6th; his form clearly good after his recent first taste of U23 racing in UCI-ranked events in Greece. In the 100-rider race, the biggest group on the road today at the finish was 20-strong.
McDunphy then turned his attentions to the TT later in the day, which he also won and described as "grippy enough". He won that test from Conal Scully (Dan Morrissey Pissie), by 11 seconds with O'Connor 3rd at 14 seconds.
With tomorrow's road stage to come, where the C1s will again need to close down a large handicap, McDunphy leads overall by 1:16 from O'Connor, with Smith 3rd at 2:16. Then comes Keogh, 4th at 3:30, followed by Scully at 3:32 and O'Connor, in 6th at 3:51.
