Paidi O'Brien may have taken stage 3 in Kerry Group Rás Mumhan today but Paddy Clarke (above) has the coveted yellow jersey this evening ahead of tomorrow's final stage.
Paidi O’Brien has this afternoon put in a fantastic performance to take stage 3 of Kerry Group Rás Mumhan. The Osbourne Butchers-Edge Sports man battled very hard to stay in contact with the day’s main breakaway around Valentia Island.
And once he caught sight of the finish line in Waterville after 142km he was unbeatable, taking the win from stage 1 winner Cathal Moynihan (Tralee BC) and Eugene Moriarty (DID Dunboyne) in 3rd.
The big movers overall were Paddy Clarke (Liquidworx-Fitscience) and Mark Dowling (DID Dunboyne).
Both men made the winning escape and were joint leaders on the road for most of the stage, with Clarke taking the yellow jersey for tomorrow’s final stage and Dowling sitting in second.
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Yellow jersey this morning, Sean McKenna of the Irish Development team was left stranded in the peloton, over one minute down by the finish.
How it unfolded
It was action stations from the start with the DID Dunboyne team clearly intent on making an impression and getting their man Mark Dowling up the general classification, after starting 5th overall this morning.
It was the team’s Kerry man Eugene Moriarty, one of the best riders in the country for almost two decades, who got the attacking underway, opening a gap on his own in the opening kilometres.
After Moriarty was hauled back in short order, the bunch sped along at over 65km per hour, with plenty of attacking and defensive riding really forcing up the pace.
The first escape to go clear numbered seven men and included: Colm Cassidy, Paidi O'Brien, Jack Pullar, Robin Kelly, Harry Sweering, Stijn Bakras and Denis Dunworth.
However, moving onto the fist KOH prime of Kilurley at 20km it was all back together again, with the sun out for the day.
After that ascent the bunch would split, with the yellow jersey of Sean McKenna (Irish Development) riding well and in the first section of the pack. There was plenty of aggression at the head of the leading section with another escape soon moving clear.
That breakaway included some really quality men, with Eugene Moriarty and Paidi O’Brien again present along with Harry Sweering, UK rider Conor Ryan and former Rás winner and Isle of Man rider Andrew Roche; the latter an adopted son of Kerry having ridden the Rás riding for that county’s team.
That lead group was looking strong and organised, and sensing the danger it posed Dowling bridged up to it along with Clarke and Sjors Dekker of the WV West Frisia team from Holland. The gap was just 15 seconds when they made the bridge as they roared towards Caherciveen.
The breakaway of 10 men quickly began to pull out the gap, with a time check of 46 seconds coming over race radio not long after Dowling and Clarke made the juncture and then jumping to 1:05.
In that group were: Sweering from Holland, DID’s local man Moriarty, the in-form Paidi O’Brien (Osbourne Butchers-Edge Sports), UK rider Conor Ryan, DID’s Dowling, Dutchman Dekker, stage 1 winner and former yellow jersey Cathal Moynihan (Tralee BC), stage 1 breakaway man Jack Pullar of Scottish Cycling and the Isle of Man’s Roche.
Behind there were some very good teams stranded, most notably Aquablue and the Irish Development team; the latter holding four classification jerseys including yellow with McKenna and having won yesterday’s queen stage with a storming ride by Dylan Foley.
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In the remains of the bunch behind the escape, it was the defending champion Damien Shaw and the winner from two years ago Sean Lacey – both Aquablue – who tried to get clear with Robert Jan Mol of the WV West Fresia team, with the gap between them and the 10 leaders at a manageable 55 seconds.
However, while the three chasers gave as much as they could, the gap between them and the 10 ahead grew out to 1:22, with the main field a further 44 seconds back, or 2:06 down on the leaders with 65km raced of the 142km Waterville stage 3.
Heading out onto Valentia Island and the gap grew further; with the chasers 1:30 off the leaders and the gap between the leaders and the peloton now at two minutes.
Sweering then had a mechanical and lost his place in the lead group of 10. He chased alone for a period, before waiting for the three chasers of Shaw, Lacey and his own team mate Robert Jan Mol.
However, not long after the three chasers became four, they hit the Valentia Island climb and were caught approaching Portmagee, with the gap between the 10 leaders and the bunch now 2:10.
Scotland’s Pullar led the escape over that Valentia Island climb, but as the race headed to leave Valentia Island, the gap between bunch and breakaway had fallen to 1:30. And coming off Valentia Island had reduced further to 1:20.
There was clearly still life in the bunch, with the yellow jersey of McKenna in that main group.
However, just as it looked like the leaders might fade quickly, the next time gap at the 40km remaining mark was bigger; at 1:40.
Heading back towards the Ballinskelligs and Dekker was obviously feeling frisky, deciding to attack his eight breakaway colleagues up front.
He pulled out a gap of around 20 seconds in very short order as time checks came through that the bunch was now two minutes back; the breakaway clearly reasserting itself and now looking good for success.
Dowling and Clarke were joint leaders on the road to that point, thought Dekker’s solo attack put him into virtual yellow, having started this morning 59 seconds down.
Behind Dekker, it was Pullar doing a lot of damage as he tried to close the gap to the lone leader, with Paidi O’Brien looking vulnerable as a result of the Scotsman’s efforts.
However, O’Brien battled hard as the breakaway edged their way back up to Dekker, who now had just 12 seconds advantage with 30kms to race.
At that point, the gap between escape and yellow jersey bunch had closed a little again, and was now at 1:45.
By the 20km to go sign, Dekker had been caught and the gap between the nine leaders and the break had tumbled to a nail biting one minute; its smallest since the escape moved clear.
However, by the 10km to go point, that gap was just over one minute to the 70-rider yellow jersey group and the breakaway looked safe, as Dekker was attacking again and Pullar was, well, pulling him back.
The exchanges up front and a loss of momentum behind saw the gap go out again, this time to 1:37.
The last 10km would be characterised by extreme aggression up front, with attacks from Ryan, Dekker, Pullar, Clarke and Dowling.
But it stayed together to the finish where O’Brien took a great win from stage 1 winner Moynihan and Eugene Moriarty rolling back the years for 3rd place.
Clarke took the yellow jersey from Dowling, with Dylan Foley holding his lead in the U23 classification and the mountains classification.
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