Rás Chonmara stage 1 results, report & photos; Eoin Whelan takes opening stage

Eoin Whelan (Seven Springs CC) nudges out Chris Troy to take the win on stage 1.

The first stage of Rás Chonamara began under blue skies and sunshine, but if the riders felt they need their thermals to keep warm, the flurry of early attacks wasn’t long warming all the riders up.

The bunch remained together until Maam Cross where a crash in the main bunch caused a number of riders to loose contact.

On the drag between Maam Cross and Maam, a group of 8 riders drifted off the front and quickly gained a gap of 15 secs on the peleton. By the time the group left Maam, this break was whittled down to four riders, Eoin Whelan, Seven Springs CC, Chris Troy, Castlebar CC, Devon McIlwaine Duffin Transport & Neil Long Dublin Wheelers.

These four worked very well together and with Neil Long leading them over the climb before Corr na Móna, they seemed to be gaining all the time increasing their gap to 45 secs.

There were many attacks off the front of the peleton with Henry Cook, Munster Development Team and team mate Stephen Shanahan making a big effort to get across.

The peleton put a big push on with Cúchulainn CC riders, Covey CC and Mark Shannon Burren CC also putting in turns at the front and the gap was brought back to 20 secs with the break in sight but on the narrow roads on the shore of Lough Nafooey, the gap once again increased.

As the riders approached the KOH at Finny, they had a gap of 50 secs over the peleton who were all together again. There was a fast descent back followed by a prime, which was taken by McIlwaine.

The gap oscillated hugely over the final 30km from 1min to 25 secs with McIlwaine doing Trojan work to keep the break in front.

Once again Henry Cooke of the Munster Development Team tried to bridge the gap but after 5km in no man’s land, he was reeled again. At 10km to go Junior rider, Eddie Dunbar, also of the Munster Development Squad attacked and rode superbly to catch the break.

These 5 remained together until the end and Whelan took the stage win, followed by Troy McIlwaine, Long and Dunbar in 5^th.

The main bunch followed in shortly after @ 27 secs with Jason Prendegast taking the bunch gallop closely followed by Colm Staunton, Covey Wheelers.

Eoin Whelan so wears yellow for tomorrow’s 10km time trial and with 3secs separating the first 5 riders, he will need to put in a very good time trial on a very technical course to hold onto yellow.

Stage 1 Results

Pos	Number	Name	Surname	Club	Category	Stage 1	@
1	190	Eoin	Whelan	Seven Springs CC	A2	02:27:11
2	123	Chris	Troy	Catlebar CC	A2	02:27:11	00:00
3	150	Devon	McIlwaine	Duffin Transport	A2	02:27:12	00:01
4	146	Neil	Long	Dublin Wheelers	A2	02:27:12	00:01
5	171	Eddie	Dunbar	Munster Dev SENSA Team	JR	02:27:14	00:03
6	126	Jason	Prendergast	Connacht Team	JR	02:27:38	00:27
7	135	Colm	Staunton	Covey	A3	02:27:38	00:27
8	178	Damien	Lagan	North Pole	A2	02:27:38	00:27
9	97	Donnacha	O'Brian	West Cork CC	A2	02:27:38	00:27
10	172	Ciar	Dwyer	Munster Dev SENSA Team	JR	02:27:38	00:27
11	170	Henry	Cooke	Munster Dev SENSA Team	JR	02:27:38	00:27
12	106	Frankie	Barrett	Galway Bay CC	A3	02:27:38	00:27
13	173	Stephan	Shanahan	Munster Dev SENSA Team	JR	02:27:39	00:28
14	96	Brian	O'Donnell	West Coast Wheelers	A2	02:27:39	00:28
15	120	Mark	Shannon	Burren CC	A2	02:27:39	00:28
16	189	David	Nugent	Seven Springs CC	A2	02:27:39	00:28
17	181	John	Dillon	Orwell	A3	02:27:39	00:28
18	199	Colm	Laverty	Stamullen RC	A2	02:27:39	00:28
19	108	Donal	Kelly	Galway Bay CC	A2	02:27:39	00:28
20	156	Jason	McHugh	Four Masters CC	A2	02:27:40	00:29
21	83	Edward	Sweeney		A2	02:27:40	00:29
22	132	Michael	Brady	Covey	A3	02:27:40	00:29
23	163	Eoin	Greene	Iverk Carrick Wheelers	A2	02:27:40	00:29
24	142	Alan	Brosnan	Dublin Wheelers	A3	02:27:40	00:29
25	114	Stuart	Cox	Black Rose Racing	A2	02:27:40	00:29
26	125	Mathew	Heaney	Clann Eireann	A3	02:27:41	00:30
27	141	Patrick	Smith	DU CC	A3	02:27:41	00:30
28	174	Pierre	DeLeaster	Munster Development Team	JR	02:27:41	00:30
29	191	Colm	Turner	Shannon Cycling Club	A2	02:27:41	00:30
30	200	Gary	McDonald	Team DMG	A3	02:27:42	00:31
31	101	Owen	Martin	Cuchulainn CC	A3	02:27:42	00:31
32	105	Myles	McCorry	Cuchulainn CC	A2	02:27:42	00:31
33	122	Rory	Conroy	Catlebar CC	A3	02:27:42	00:31
34	91	Shane	Scully	Team DMG	A3	02:27:42	00:31
35	129	Darragh	Feeley	Connacht Team	Jr	02:27:43	00:32
36	95	Eamon	Hartnett	Visit Nenagh	A3	02:27:43	00:32
37	179	Paul	McCarter	Omagh Wheelers CC	A3	02:27:43	00:32
38	92	Gary	Scully	Team DMG	A3	02:27:43	00:32
39	198	Cian	Delaney	Stamullen RC	A2	02:27:45	00:34
40	104	Gerry	McCabe	Cuchulainn CC	A2	02:27:47	00:36
41	127	Darragh	Bailey	Connacht Team	Jr	02:27:47	00:36
42	110	Sean	McInerney	Galway Bay CC	A3	02:27:58	00:47
43	151	Niall	O'Hagan	Duffin Transport	A2	02:28:29	01:18
44	118	Stephen	Mullane	Bottesshia Racing Club	A3	02:31:49	04:38
45	196	Martin	Vereker	St Tiernans CC	A3	02:31:49	04:38
46	94	Shane	Scally	Tullamore CTC	A3	02:31:50	04:39
47	145	Paul	Faherty	Dublin Wheelers	A2	02:31:50	04:39
48	134	Padraig	Conway	Covey	A3	02:31:50	04:39
49	195	Colm	Tobin	St Tiernans CC	A3	02:31:50	04:39
50	98	Michael	Flanagan	Western Lakes	A2	02:36:28	09:17
51	113	Conor	McAteer	Bann Valley Road Club	JR	02:37:11	10:00
52	166	Kieran	Kelly	Killcullen CC	A2	02:38:49	11:38
53	167	Keith	Johnson	Lakeside cc	A3	02:41:01	13:50
54	193	Jamie	Noone	Sorrento CC	A3	02:41:05	13:54
55	115	Christian	Jeuken	Black Rose Racing	JR	02:41:05	13:54
56	121	Robert	Hawes	Burren CC	A3	02:41:05	13:54
57	184	Peter	Forde	Realt	A3	02:41:06	13:55
58	109	Sean	McCarthy	Galway Bay CC	A3	02:41:06	13:55
59	164	Liam	Browne	Killcullen CC	A2	02:41:07	13:56
60	87	Maurice	Lawlor		A2	02:41:07	13:56
61	107	Michael	Dooley	Galway Bay CC	A3	02:41:07	13:56
62	148	Cathal	O'Gorman	Dublin Wheelers	A3	02:41:08	13:57
63	165	Brian	Geraghty	Killcullen CC	A2	02:41:08	13:57
64	182	Nick	Watson	Orwell	A3	02:41:08	13:57
65	100	Amy	Brice		L	02:41:08	13:57
66	169	Brian	McCarthy	MBCC	A3	02:41:09	13:58
67	147	Ronan	McDonnell	Dublin Wheelers	A3	02:41:09	13:58
68	185	karl	Powderly	Realt CC	A3	02:41:09	13:58
69	153	Mick	Hennessy	Fixx Rouleurs	A3	02:41:09	13:58
70	93	Peter	Gillespie	Tullamore	A3	02:41:10	13:59
71	155	Ted	McCaffrey	Four Masters CC	A3	02:41:13	14:02
72	117	Billy	Walsh	Black Rose Racing	A3	02:41:14	14:03
73	175	Kevin	Hayes	Munster Development Team	JR	02:48:03	20:52
74	168	Eoin	Lynch	Lakeside Wheelers	A3	02:55:29	28:18
75	162	Niall Óg	Dunne	Iverk Carrick Wheelers	JR	02:56:43	29:32
76	143	Damien	Crowe	Dublin Wheelers	A3	02:56:45	29:34
77	152	Siobhán	McNamara	Eirevelo	L	02:56:45	29:34
78	112	Francine	Meehan	Aqua Blue	L	02:56:45	29:34
79	102	Peter	Tomany	Cuchulainn CC	A3	02:56:46	29:35
80	149	Craig	Crawford	Duffin Transport	JR	02:56:47	29:36
81	154	Ger	Madden	Fixx Rouleurs	A3	02:56:47	29:36
82	186	John	Cleary	Seven Springs CC	A3	02:56:47	29:36
83	131	Graham	O'Brien	Connacht Team	Jr	02:56:48	29:37
84	103	Sean	Loughran	Cuchulainn CC	A3	02:56:48	29:37
85	119	Keith	Raymond	Bottesshia Racing Club	A3	03:01:00	33:49
86	130	Stephen	Murrphy	Connacht Team	Jr	03:03:49	36:38
87	140	Keith	McDermot	Donamon dynamos	A3	03:07:14	40:03
88	99	David	Coppinger		A2	03:07:14	40:03
DNF	133	Tom	Burke	Covey	A3	DNF
DNF	137	Roger	Farrell	Donamon dynamos	A3	DNF
DNF	124	Keiran	Gallagher	Catlebar CC	A3	DNF
DNF	111	Michael	McWeeney	Galway Bay CC	A3	DNF
DNF	194	Michael	Mescal	St Tiernans CC	A3	DNF
DNF	116	Aiden	Reade	Black Rose racing	A3	DNF
DNS	128	Cael	Coen	Connacht Team	Jr	DNS
DNS	161	Ray	Cullen	Iverk Carrick Wheelers	A3	DNS
DNS	180	Anne	Dalton	Orwell	L	DNS
DNS	144	Richard	Dufficy	Dublin Wheelers	A3	DNS
DNS	138	Tom	Feeley	Donamon dynamos	A2	DNS
DNS	159	Kazik	Jankowski	Henry J Lyons & Partners Dublin	A2	DNS
DNS	139	Declan	Kilroe	Donamon dynamos	A3	DNS
DNS	192	Declan	Kinch	Slipstream CC	A2	DNS
DNS	160	Alan	Lyne	Inspiration CC	JR	DNS
DNS	88	John	Mahon		A3	DNS
DNS	188	Brian	Martin	Seven Springs CC	A2	DNS
DNS	89	Tony	McDonogh		A3	DNS
DNS	183	Eamonn	Morgan	Planet Tri	A3	DNS
DNS	157	Aiden	Noone	Four Masters CC	JR	DNS
DNS	176	Darragh	O'Donoughue	Munster Development Team	JR	DNS
DNS	177	Ciaran	Steed	Murphy Surveys Killcullen	A2	DNS
DNS	158	Shaun	Stewart	Four Masters CC	A2	DNS
DNS	136			Covey		DNS