Last day glory for Kenneally and Martin

BRIAN KENNEALLY from Kilkenny, a member of the Meath Myhome.ie/BDBC team claimed the glory of stage victory while German Tony Martin held onto the yellow jersey when the FBD Insurance RÁS concluded in Skerries yesterday.

Kenneally, who won the stage into Loughrea on Monday, thrilled the hundreds who lined the finishing straight in the North Dublin seaside town as he held on to win by a bike length with the main field chasing him down.

The chase was organised by the two German teams who combined their talents to protect Martin’s 17 second lead over Páidí Ó Brien from Kanturk on general classification.

There was one time when the lead was lost on the road. The Canadian champion, Dominique Rollin from Montreal who went into the final stage with a 40 second deficit, held it as part of a five-man leading group that enjoyed a lead of 2 mins 21 seconds on the main bunch.

David McCann from the Ireland Subway team had initiated that break which also included an Australian, Peter Hertzeig and Nick Waite of the US Kelly Benefit Strategies team. They were joined by Mart Ojavee, winner of the first stage and Rollin, who recorded his third stage win into Newcastle on Saturday.

When Kenneally came through with Dermot Nally and Alain Van der Velde the group was splitting under the pressure and the advantage was less than half a minute.

“I ran out of energy at that point,” Rollin said after losing touch with the new leading group.

Kenneally led them across the finish line and out on the first of the two laps of the 13km finishing circuit with a 47 second advantage.

“I was on 20 mph to 25 mph over the hill,” Kenneally said. “At the top I dropped them all. I looked back and saw David McCann had a gap so I waited for him. I knew I needed him for another lap because the wind was so strong. McCann and myself just gave it 100%. I knew the gap was down to 30 seconds so the jersey was gone. Now I had to go for the stage.

“It was 30 seconds, then it was 20 seconds. I had 19 seconds going into the last 2k but then they came up on me very quickly. I looked back and they were there. I could not lose it.”

It was a nailbiting finish with the crowds carrying him on as the main bunch with the Germans at the front screamed down on him.

Kenneally paid tribute to the team who were clear winners of the county title. Eugene Moriarty who picked up two county awards during the week was involved in an horrific pile up on Saturday, suffered whip lash, sore ribs and a broken finger but he finished out the race. Aidan Crowley was another popular county award winner after finishing ninth on Saturday’s stage.