By Brian Canty
Matteo Cigala has won the final stage of the Kerry Group Rás Mumhan in Killorglin, Co. Kerry today while Blackpool-born Dillon Byrne (VCUK Velochampion) held onto the yellow jersey with 12 seconds to spare.
Cigala blasted up the hill quickest at the end of today’s finale with Tom Mazzone (Isle of Man CC) just behind him while Richard Maes (Killarney CC) rounded out the stage podium in third.
And when the aforementioned Byrne crossed the line as part of the main group in the same time as the stage winner he safeguarded the jersey despite some ferocious attempts to take it from him.
The man who started second this morning, Ronan McLaughlin (Aqua Blue Academy), had 16 seconds to make up if he was to win the race outright and even though he dug very deep, he ended up dropping one place to third overall when Mazzone moved above him thanks to a time bonus for second on the stage.
McLaughlin will lose no sleep over that, however, as he told stickybottle last night his biggest goal is the An Post Rás next month.
And with half the race in his home county of Donegal it’s not hard to see why he is taking it so seriously and this weekend was not a huge priority.
Eight Irish riders made up the top 10 on the stage today with the Irish U23 pair of Adam Stenson and Conn McDunphy among those in the mix.
And there were six Irish in the top 10 overall, making it a very good weekend for the home-based men.
McDunphy was ninth at 28 seconds in what was the best performance by him so far, while Mark Dowling (Strata3/VeloRevolution) and Eoin Morton (UCD-Fitzcycles.ie) were sixth and seventh respectively, at 22 seconds.
Dermot Trulock (Lucan CRC) and Ryan Reilly (Ireland U23 team) were also right up there and that is a hugely promising sign for them as the season heads into a very race-heavy period.
Leon Mazzone (Isle of Man CC) may have won the U23 classification but behind him were a string of Irishmen, Trulock and McDunphy second and third.
Tom Mazzone pipped Cigala for the points jersey on 45 points compared to 36 while Morton was a runaway winner of the polka dot jersey with 100 points compared to Sean Lacey’s tally of 60.
And unsurprisingly, the Ireland U23 team blitzed the team prize classification with each of their number doing superbly well on every stage.
Conor Kissane (Killarney CC) showed he’s a rider headed in the right direction with an assured display to take the A2 jersey though Colm Sheehan (Blarney CC) was tied on time with him.#
Kissane finished a fine 21st on GC at 3:44.
More later…
