Richard Hooton edges out Mick Fitzgerald in tight sprint for Rás Clár victory

Richard Hooton (Visitnenagh.ie) takes the sprint win from the breakaway at Rás Clár this afternoon (Photo: www.blackumbrellaphotography.com)

Richard Hooton has taken his first win of the 2013 season with a brilliant performance in blisteringly hot conditions in Rás Clár this afternoon, Sunday.

The Visit Nenagh-Team DMG strongman, who was forced to miss last month’s An Post Rás as he was sitting his final year exams in UCC, showed he has lost absolutely no fitness or form on those who rode the eight-day.

Today he beat Mick Fitzgerald (Fermoy CC) and Mike Storan (Planet Tri) into second and third respectively.

Hooton has not won a race since last year’s John Drumm Memorial in Currow, Co Kerry, but he looks in superb form right now and will look ahead to the National Championships with some enthusiasm. Unfortunately for him, he misses out on the U23 category by just three days.

The Mallow man was the strongest at the end of 110 gruelling kilometres, just having a bike length to spare on strong riders like Fitzgerald and Storan.

Derek Joyce (Galway Bay) and Paddy Clarke (Castlebar) were next over the line, with promising Kanturk rider Eddie Dunbar next, in sixth.

The latter will rue leading out the sprint from 400 metres, and though Clarke was on his wheel coming into the flat and fast finish, it was Storan who peeled off Clarke and looked set for the win.

However, Hooton thundered down the final 150 metres to edge them all, with Fitzgerald trailing him and doing enough to take the runner-up spot. The latter will look to go one better in his home race next weekend in Cobh, a race he has won in the past.

Today’s race saw a sign-on of a whopping 196 riders, with just over a quarter of those competing in the main event. The A1s and 2s went off together first and from the gun a threatening move escaped featuring Timmy Barry (Aquablue), Hooton, Clarke and three others.

That sextet worked well together and pulled out a gap of between 35 and 45 seconds, with Hooton cresting the day’s first KOH leading. But those behind were hot in pursuit and on the descent they drilled the pace to bring the move back.

Around 10 riders rode across to make it 16 up front, with the day’s big players all present, including Mike Fitzgerald, Brennan, Dunbar, Joyce and Storan.

But with such a big breakaway, it was never likely to work cohesively so several riders tried jumping away, with Clarke one of the most active.

Timmy Barry (Aquablue) was also very active but eventually a seven-man group escaped; the winning move plus Charlie Prendergast (Polygon Sweet Nice).

That group of seven worked well together, with Dunbar doing much of the driving on the five-kilometre climb.

Hooton jumped him towards the summit to nab a second KOH for himself and by the top they had 45 seconds on those behind as they approached the last leg of the race.

Prendergast got dropped to leave six up front and in the final kilometres cramp began to take its toll on all six, with no one intent on taking a flier. That opened the way for Hooton and despite coming late, when he got on top of the big gear he was unstoppable.

One point of note is that Dunbar and Dylan Foley were given special dispensation to ride the race to aid their preparations for the Junior Tour and Europeans. Foley had to call a halt to his race because of a knee injury that flared up after 40k but he is expected to be back on the bike tomorrow or Tuesday.

In the A3 race, Dara Bailey (Donamon Dynamos), a first-year junior took the honours in fine style when he got the better of Shane Power (Dungarvan CC) and Stephen Shanahan (Limerick.

Cathal O’Donovan is fast making a name for himself in the A4 category, and he won for the second week in a row; the Blarney man getting the better of Michael Martin (Coachford) and his clubmate Eoin O’Connell.