Ronan McLaughlin has won the Foyle Three Day after some great racing involving many of the best riders in the country (All photos with thanks to Shea Gribbon)

Ronan McLaughlin fights to win Foyle Three Day

Having already won two of the hardest road races on the calendar this year, Ronan McLaughlin has now claimed the Foyle Three Day.

The race featured some of the best riders in the country, with McLaughlin proving very strong over the three stages despite being busy organising the event in the build up.

He faced a big challenge today in defending his yellow jersey when breakaways got away from him.

First Darnell Moore (Caldwell Cycles) stormed clear and then, more dangerously, Dillon Corkery (Gerard-DHL).

But the former An Post-Chainreaction man, now riding for Viner-Caremark-Pactimo, dug deep and got the job done.

And so he adds the overall victory to his wins in the Shay Elliott Memorial and stage 2 of the Victus Tour of Ulster.

After the opening 88km stage on Friday, McLaughlin put himself into a great position for a big weekend.

Top down: Irish U23 champion Darnell Moore took flight for a long period on stage 3 today. Corkery leads the yellow jersey group before his big attack. McLaughlin and team mate Hennebry (in green) patrol the front, but they didn't do too much in the chase too early.

The opening stage was won by Darragh McCarter (Donegal Bay CC); another Donegal man having a fantastic season in 2018.

McCarter took victory and the yellow jersey in some style when he finished five seconds clear of six breakaway men.

One of Irish cycling’s stars of this year, Corkery, was 2nd from Conor Hennebry and team mate McLaughlin.

Also in the group five seconds behind the winner was Craig McAuley (Caldwell Omagh) along with Fintan Ryan (Sports Room Racing) and Darnell Moore (Caldwell Cycles).

Those six were 10 seconds ahead of Cian Sutcliffe (Gerard-DHL). But after Sutcliffe the gaps were very big; a 12-man chasing group more than one minute back.

And at the end of the day most of the field lost more than three minutes, with 50 riders giving away more than nine minutes.

The result meant the first eight were in the driving seat for the general classification. Saturday’s stage 2, which went over Mamore Gap, was won by Sean Moore (Gerard DHL).

Top down: Corkery breaks clear, showing no fear in taking the fight to the race leader and his team. Viner-Caremark-Pactimo string out the bunch in the chase of Corkery, McAuley and Doherty; the latter a junior and riding extremely well against top A1s. Corkery leads the three-man escape towards the finish and towards stage victory.

The winner of stage 2, Sean Moore was one of four men who gained more than three minutes on everyone else that day.

Ronan McLaughlin was the only one of the four who had been in the breakaway on stage 1. And so he took the race lead; his first ever yellow jersey.

Also part of that leading quarter on stage two were Luke Smith (Viner-Caremark-Pactimo) and Eoin O’Connell, the Blarney man guesting with Four Masters CC this weekend.

Hennebry and Corkery finished together in 5th and 6th, some 2:22 down. The rest of the field was in smithereens much further back the road.

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That result put McLaughlin into yellow by 1:18 from Moore, with Smith another three seconds back.

Then came Hennebry in 4th and some 2:22 behind McLaughlin, with Corkery in 5th on the same time. And O’Connell completed the top six overall going into the last stage, some 2:52 back.

It meant McLaughlin’s team had three riders in the top six. And on today’s 122km stage 3, that team was forced to work hard to keep its man in the yellow jersey.

A large group of 17 riders went clear early, from which Moore escaped solo. He pulled out a lead on the rest of the breakaway that exceeded 1½ minutes.

Moore would collect maximum climbers’ points at the cat 2 Ballyartan Road and the cat 3 Donemana climbs.

However, the peloton would catch the breakaway and later reabsorb Moore before the cat 1 Plumbridge Mast climb.

But it was over that climb that the real threat to McLaughlin’s race lead emerged on today's final stage.

McAuley (Caldwell Cycles) was first over the time from junior Aaron Doherty (NRPT-Chill Insurance) and Luke Smith (Viner-Caremark-Pactimo).

McAuley and Doherty would then pull clear and were joined by Corkery; the latter in 5th place overall at the start of the stage and 2:22 down.

The leading trio soon built a gap of over two minutes on the peloton containing McLaughlin.

His team mates then went to the front and chased hard, though the gap did not immediately come down.

Indeed, as they hit 10km to go the gap was still just over two minutes. And it looked like overall victory hung in the balance; Corkery gunning for McLaughlin.

The pressure of the chase trimmed the peloton right back but the gap came down as the finish neared.

Out front Corkery blasted up the Church Brae incline to win the stage; from McAuley at 16 seconds and Doherty at 18 seconds.

However, the bad news for Corkery was that the gap to those behind had dipped under one minute; Fintan Ryan (Sports Room Racing) taking a strong 4th place at just 58 seconds.

The small group Ryan led in fractured at the finish, but McLaughlin lost just seconds in the push to the line.

He finished in 8th on the day, some 1:02 down on the Corkery. And that meant he sealed overall victory.

He won by 1:14 from stage 1 winner Moore, with the impressive Corkery moving up to 3rd overall.

Corkery not only took today’s stage win and 3rd overall, he also won the points classification. Another first-year U23, Luke Smith won the climbers’ classification.

Moore won the U23 classification while his Viner-Caremark-Pactimo was best team. And the A2 classification was won by Jonathan Bourne (UK Provision).