A 156km stage from Mitchelstown to Enniscorthy featured fast racing and multiple breakaway attempts, with the yellow jersey changing hands for a third consecutive day. Liam Flanagan of the APS Pro Cycling team won after launching a late solo move that separated him from 16 former breakaway riders on the final third-category climb at Ross. His teammates kept the pace high for much of the day and brought back the last escapees with 10km remaining. Tim Shoreman finished second and helped Adam Lewis lose the yellow jersey, dropping to fourth overall. Conn McDunphy took third again and moved close to the lead, while Danny Riwnyj remained in contention. Tomorrow’s route through the Wicklow Mountains offers McDunphy a familiar opportunity to attack for the race lead.
"The boys kept the racing open today so it was full gas, said Flanagan of the pace set by his teammates of APS, the American-backed squad having spent much of the day on the front of the bunch before eventually reeling in the last of the day's escapees, Lindsay Watson of Tyrone, with just 10km to go. I got to the bottom of the climb, nobody was on my wheel so I just lit it from the bottom to the top, full gas. I just carried the momentum. I'm delighted to take it today."
"Second place on the stage went to yesterday's winner, Tim Shoreman of the British Wheelbase team, which was enough to see Scotsman replace Flanagan's teammate Adam Lewis in the yellow jersey of race leader. Lewis missed today's big move and dropped to fourth overall at 49 seconds. Behind the new leader, Kilcock native Conn McDunphy, another APS Pro Cycling rider, took third for the second consecutive day and is now just 14 seconds off the race lead in second overall."
"McDunphy, a former stage winner on the Rás, will be looking to making his move for the race lead tomorrow on a route through the Wicklow Mountains that he is very familiar with, having won the Shay Elliott Memorial on the same roads recently. Cork's Willem O'Connor dropped down the overall standings to sixth but holds onto his white jersey of best U-23 rider and also leads the classification for best county riders."
Read at Irish Independent
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