The queen stage of Dornan Rás Mumhan - with six categorised climbs, including Coomanaspig - promised much today and it did not disappoint. The heavens opened for the full 122km from Killarney to Portmagee, with the race splitting to pieces on a savage day out on the saddle.
At the finish line, Dutch rider Casper Rode (West Frisia) claimed a victory he will remember for many years, after getting the better of Daire Feeley (Burren CC) and yellow jersey Jamie Whitcher (Composite Black).
That trio got away from the stage-long breakaway with about 10km to go, but not before a near three-hour action-packed stage that saw the winning move started - by Feeley and Robin Mould (Foran CT) - after just 2km.
Though Feeley and Mould were the first to pull ahead, they were soon joined by a group of strong riders clearly keen to crack on with the task at hand, despite the wet conditions, and the terrain to come.
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In that group were: Lindsay Watson (Caldwell Cycles), Daire Feeley (Burren CC), Casper Rode (West Frisia), Ryan Christensen (Foran CC), Robin Mould (Foran CT), Cameron McLaren (Taap Kalas), Conal Scully (Dan Morrissey-Pissei) and Monte Guerrini (Black Composite).
Though their number would swell - taking on three more men - later in the stage, most of them were never seen by the peloton again and put the best part of two minutes into the best of the rest by the time the race finished.
After 40km of racing, the breakaway had just over 1:40 on the main field, which was being whittled right down every time the road kicked up. But over the next 30km or so, that advantage was gradually brought back and came down to just 10 seconds.
However, the leaders never gave up, and though some of them were jettisoned, others took advantage of the falling gap to jump across from the small bunch. And once that exchange of personnel had taken place, the leaders' gap started to go out again.
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Though yellow jersey, Jamie Whitcher (Compact Black), was not present in the initial breakaway, he got across later in the stage after Rás Tailteann stage winner Tom Martin (Spellman Dublin Port), Ollie Hucks (Taap Kalas) and teenager Willem O'Connor (Velo Performance); the latter really putting himself on the map this weekend.
Martin and O'Connor made their move on the climb just before Coomanaspig, crested with 91km to go, and it was young O'Connor who led the way of that climb; the hardest and most feared of the weekend.
With about 10km to go, and with the breakaway now holding an advantage of close to two minutes, a flurry of attacks off the front of the lead group saw Feeley, Rode and Whitcher ride clear; getting away after an attack by Martin had been brought back.
At the finish, Rode won it well; his sprint distancing the other two by three seconds. Feeley came in 2nd and race leader Whitcher was 3rd, on the same time, to defend his yellow jersey impressively after initially missing the move.
Behind them, Watson took 4th, at 24 seconds, followed by Christensen and Hucks, all on the same time. Then came Martin and O'Connor, who placed 7th and 8th at 27 and 29 seconds respectively.
Then well over a minute elapsed before the first of the chasers arrived; Igor Baars (West Frisia) taking 9th at 1:46 from Odhran Doogan (Caldwell Cycles), Will Truelove (Halesowen Academy Mapei), Liam Crowley (Munster Dornan), Armstrong and Scully.
Whitcher now leads overall by 16 seconds from today's stage winner, Rode, with Feeley up to 3rd, at 33 seconds, and the flying O'Connor in 4th at 34 seconds.
Whitcher also leads the young rider classification while Feeley is in the climbers' jersey and Rode has the points classification lead ahead of the uphill finish tomorrow at Kerryman's Table.
- For full results, please follow this link
