Having won the Kanturk Three Day twice before, a delighted Martin O'Loughlin has bagged more success today and given himself a good shot at the overall. Seen here in TT action at the recent Tour of the North (Photo: Toby Watson)
By Brian Canty
A victor in Kanturk more than once in the past, veteran Martin O’Loughlin bagged another win today and the leader’s jersey on the opening stage of the O’Leary Stone-Kanturk Three Day and was clearly delighted with his day’s work.
“I’ve a great record in this race; ridden it twice and won it twice,” O’Loughlin said after leading in the bunch sprint on the 90km opener after a dangerous move had been caught with around 5km remaining.
“I won it by two seconds in 2007 and about two seconds as well in 2008. My son Michael won this race the last four years and this stage every year. So it’s great to be able to do it myself because I’ve never won this stage myself.”
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Things weren’t looking so good for O’Loughlin with one of the three 30km laps remaining as he sat in the peloton of over 100 riders with the break up the road working very well.
But with so many strong teams having missed it, he knew the slightest co-operation would probably bring the move back.
“We just said to all the people at the front crossing the start-finish line for the last time, we said ‘look if they’re away by Newmarket we’ll just put 20 guys on the front’.
“We didn’t exactly get the 20 we needed, we got about 10 lads who rode through and I just did the final dig and went halfway across to them on the flat tailwind section for home. Often if you just go halfway across they’ll catch them after that.”
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So with the move pulled back, the thoughts of the Carrick Iverk Produce man quickly turned to stage honours. And on a drag up to the finish he prevailed.
“It was great; I was third into the last bend on Eddie Dunbar’s wheel as usual. Killarney rider John Brosnan literally got 30 bike lengths on the rest of us after an unbelievable attack. It was amazing and that forced Eddie to chase and I was glued to him.
“Davy McCarthy (NRPT) was there and came around the corner, a lad from Western Lakes bumped me off the wheel but once I saw Davy come I jumped onto his wheel and just drag raced him to the line.”
O’Loughlin, however, knows there’s a long way to go yet before he can think of winning the overall for a third.
“We’ve the time trial in the morning so we’ll know very quickly after that how we are. The Munster lads are very strong, Eddie (Dunbar) is strong but I’ve seen him go better than today,” said of Dunbar later admitted he had a cold all week.
“It was a heavy headwind on the hills so you’re riding into a wind all the time though, I was on his wheel there I didn’t give him an inch.”
The racing continues tomorrow with a morning time trial followed by an afternoon road stage, and concludes with a road stage on Sunday.
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