Welcome in the green and Irish hills. Lots of competition for this one, with Dunbar, Lavery and McKenna being the favourites. With their number, Glanbia should be able to set up the latter – or Dunne – nicely, but we’ll see how it fares.
A bunch of amateurs are at the front. Curley and Murphy lead the pack for Glanbia.
The peloton is stretched with 30 km left. Placing will be important today! Amateurs are still trying to escape.
11 km left, penultimate climb of the day. A bunch of Glanbia riders lead the way, 13 seconds ahead of the other favourites.
Lavery, Mullen, Teggart and Corkery are not in these groups.
6 km left, and we see McKenna leading the way in a group of 8, with Dunbar and Potts. Who is Glanbia riding for?
2 km to go. There are 7 Glanbia riders in a group of 11, and Murphy’s in the slipstream of his teammates. Dunbar, English, Potts and O'Loughlin are the other riders here.
Flamme rouge! McKenna goes alone, with all his contenders boxed in by the Glanbia riders!
500 m. Potts tries to come back, the others seem out of it.
And it’s a fantastic teamwork by Glanbia to bring McKenna to the champion of Ireland title! Potts is 2nd, Dunne is a 2nd Glanbia riders on the podium.
“...the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably."
A. Roy
Dunbar is once again among the favourites of the day, and this time, there is no Glanbia’s teammwork to beat him. He should be Mullen’s main contender, though Downey might be there for a surprise.
O'Loughlin is the first decent time-trialist to go. He’s got Downey right behind, and Dunbar isn’t far.
At the first timecheck, Mullen is leading the classification. He’s got 9 seconds on Dunbar for now. Downey already is 29 seconds behind. This title will probably not go to Glanbia.
At the 2nd timecheck the gap is up to 16 seconds. Mullen seems well set up to win this, but there are still 18 km left.
And the title is for Mullen in 1h03 ! Dunbar is 26 seconds behind, Downey 1’20.
“...the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably."
A. Roy
