The podium in Killorglin this evening: Connor Murphy (KOH), Denis Bakker second on stage and U23 leader, stage winner Paidi O’Brien in yellow and Dan Clifford (far right) third on the stage. (Photo: Ras Mumhan)
By Brian Canty
Former An Post-Sean Kelly rider Paidi O’Brien blasted to victory on the opening stage of the ‘Kerry Group Rás Mumhan’ into Killorglin this evening, Friday, putting his deadly kick to good use on the sharp uphill finishing straight.
He out-sprinted second placed Denis Bakker (Ruiter Dakkapellen), with local man Dan Clifford (DID Dunboyne) taking third.
O’Brien, now riding for the Dan Morrissey-Speedy Spokes outfit, won the final stage here last year and took off in this evening’s opener of the 2012 edition in the same manner.
He profited from some selfless work by his team-mates at the front when they set up the win after an 11-man group was reeled in with around 10km to go and a two-man escape broke clear at the very end.
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“The team rode excellently,” O’Brien beamed at the finish.
“I knew I had a good chance if I could get the position right. I was worried about being in the right spot coming in there. I knew I had a good turn of speed and the lads were very good to put me where I needed to be.”
“Timmy Barry helped to close a gap to a couple of guys who were away, and Fitzy (Mick Fitzgerald) and Joe Fenlon tried to keep me out of the wind. Joe gave it a good dig down into the bridge to get me to about fourth and I kicked then and didn’t look back. There was a small few gaps in the top four so I had to go early if I wanted the win and thank God it paid off.”
The Banteer native wears the yellow jersey for tomorrow’s Queen stage, where a summit finish atop the Connor Pass is expected to wreak havoc on the peloton.
Today’s stage of 101km started at 4pm from Killorglin and was a fast affair, with speeds regularly over 55kph for long periods on the flat.
While delighted with his win after such a good team performance, it wasn’t all plain sailing for O’Brien’s Cork-based squad.
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Defending champion Sean Lacey didn’t have such a good day, crashing with 10km to go and losing time after having been very active earlier in the race, going clear in some moves and mixing it up on the KOH primes.
“There was a crash before Milltown, about 10km to go and he got caught up in it,” O’Brien said of the defending champion.
“He’s not hurt but he didn’t get back up to the front. But with the Connor Pass stage tomorrow he’s still in a good position.”
Lacey, Connor Murphy (Eurocycles) and Michael Barry (Cuchulainn) went clear after around 30kms of racing and were to stay away for over 50kms before their lead was wiped out shortly after the race passed through Castleisland.
However, while the trio didn't make it to the finish to share the spoils, their escape at least enabled them to mop up some valuable KOH points, with Murphy leading that competition after today's stage.
While he was to get caught up in the crash with Lacey closer to the finish, both riders looked very strong today and are likely to feature heavily in coming days despite their bad fortune today.
Tomorrow’s second stage features four categorised climbs with the category one ascent of the Connor Pass after 120 kilometers set to really shake up the general classification.
This evening after Stage 1, O’Brien has both the GC lead and points jerseys while Connor Murphy (Eurocycles) has the KOH jersey, with stage runner up Bakker leading the U23 classification.
More when we have it; full results and photos later. It was a late stage start today so bear with us……
