The Kerry Group Rás Mumhan ended in drama on Monday when Irish rider Dean Harvey won the final stage and took the overall classification by virtue of the winner’s time bonus, but was then dramatically stripped of both victories by the race judges.
Harvey was first across the line at the end of the 113-kilometre concluding stage to Killorglin, beating Matthew Warhurst (ROKit SRCt), Seth Dunwoody (Cycling Ireland), Jenson Young (ROKit SRCT) and overnight leader Finn Crockett (Spokes Racing Team U23) in the uphill sprint.
Harvey had started the day four seconds behind Crockett. The five seconds winner’s bonus on Monday handed him the overall victory by one second, but celebrations were short lived as the race commissaires revised the results. Harvey had suffered a double puncture on the laps of the finish circuit and was determined to have spent a lap slipstreaming his team car as he chased back on to the break.
He was relegated to eighth on the stage and handed a two-minute time penalty.
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Warhurst was deemed the stage winner, while Crockett takes home the final yellow jersey to Scotland. The stage two winner finished one minute clear of Ewan Warren (Caldwell Cycles Tyrone) and a further 18 seconds ahead of Warhurst. Rás Tailteann 2022 champion Daire Feeley (All Human-Velo Revolution) was fourth.
Dunwoody and seventh-placed Liam O’Brien received praise on Monday, with the junior riders strong enough to make it into the eight-rider breakaway and take second and seventh on the stage.
Meanwhile, Peter Kirwan (Lucan Cycling Road Club) ended up the overall winner of the Gorey 3-Day race in Wexford, the A2 rider beating junior Josh Callaly (Cycling Leinster) by four seconds and Mikey Flaherty (Team Dan Morrissey-Primor by Pissei) by 14 seconds.
Kirwan was leading the race heading into Sunday evening’s time trial, won by Curtis Neill (Team Caldwell Cycles), but slipped to fifth overall behind Conor Prendergast (Galway Bay CC) in the general classification. However he bounced back on Monday’s final stage, being part of a 10-man break which finished over a minute and a half clear of the next chasing group containing Prendergast.
Gavin Hendley (Lucan Cycling Road Club) soloed to victory on that stage, with Kirwan celebrating overall success.
Linda Kelly (Spin the Bean Power by Coffee) won stage three and then finished in the same time as the stage four victor winner Aoife O’Brien (Spellman-Dublin Port), winning the women’s category overall. She ended the race 42 seconds clear of O’Brien’s sister Caoimhe.
Elsewhere, Oisín Ferrity won the Westkerke Oudenburg junior race in Flanders, Belgium. He was best of a four-man breakaway at the finish of the 88 kilometre race, beating Belgian duo Luca Boonen (Isorex Cycling Team) and Baptiste Swertvaegher (Canguru Latexco) to the line.
In Italy, Darren Rafferty (Hagens Berman Axeon) was a strong fifth in the Giro del Belvedere 1.2U-ranked under 23 race, finishing in a group sprinting for second place, 10 seconds behind the solo winner Johannes Staune-Mittet (Jumbo-Visma Development Team).
Kevin McCambridge (Trinity Racing) was away for much of the race in a breakaway, firstly with the Italian Lorenzo Farinati (Solme-Olmo) and then, after the latter crashed, continuing on solo. He was finally caught with approximately 50 kilometres remaining and was ultimately a non-finisher.
Finally national road-race champion Alice Sharpe (Israel Premier Tech Roland) placed a fine 19th in the 1.1-ranked Ronde de Mouscron in Belgium, crossing the line in a group 10 seconds behind the winner Martina Fidanza (Ceratizit-WN Pro Cycling). Lara Gillespie (UAE Development Team) was 40th, while Imogen Cotter (Fenix-Decuninck) was a non-finisher on her first day racing this season. Mia Griffin (Israel Premier Tech Roland) also didn’t finish.
