Sprint king O’Loughlin takes centre stage
Dan Craven and his Rapha Condor Sharp team turned in a superb defence of the yellow jersey and he still leads on General Classification by seven seconds from O’Loughlin’s team-mate Mark McNally while O’Loughlin himself and Richardson, who were more than three and a half minutes down after the opening stage, both move up into the top 10 on GC – 1min 45secs behind the leader.
Following the cancellation of Monday’s stage as a result of the crash, it was business as usual yesterday when the Rás bounced back with an enthralling stage that saw O’Loughlin and Richardson go head-to-head for almost four hours after making an early escape from the main bunch.
And the bunch threw the proverbial kitchen sink at them. They were chased by several groups led by the likes of two-time former champion, Chris Newton (Rapha Condor Sharp), defending his team-mate Dan Craven’s overall leadership and even Craven himself.
When they were joined by a six-man chasing group, they rode clear on their own once again and, after they were joined by a bigger group, they dispensed with them all.
Richardson’s team-mate, Wouter Sybrandy, Neil Delahaye (Ireland Subway National Team) who was later dropped on the climb, O’Loughlin and Fredrik Johansson (Sweden – Team Sprocket Pro) rode clear of this group and were later joined by Richardson.
O’Loughlin claimed both KOH primes and on the final climb at Gowlaun, some 20 miles from the finish, they still had a lead of 1:52 but now the Rapha Condor Sharp team were screaming along and had the lead down to 17 seconds at the finish.
Dublin teenager, Philip Lavery (Dublin Murphy & Gunn/Newlyn) was seventh and Corkman, Michael O’Reilly from Turners Cross, riding for the Limerick BDO Get Back team, made a return to the big time in 10th position.
“It was lovely to take the stage win on pretty much local roads but every stage win is important,” said O’Loughlin who won the stage on his last visit to Seskin Hill and won the final two years ago when his then team-mate, Stephen Gallagher, won the overall.
“Richardson was strong and his team mate was very, very strong. I was glad he was there because it was getting to be a bit of a slog. We rode hard and the winds were very favourable all day until that last bit in from Maam cross.”
Richardson admitted they made it hard for themselves yesterday but O’Loughlin was always part of his plans for the day.
“I knew David was going to be going for it as the local boy and I was just hanging on to his coattails,” he said. “We went literally from the gun. We were in a little move of eight but the bunch was really active and eventually the two of us got away. We never got more than 30 seconds from the bunch. The elastic wouldn’t snap. But you can’t give up because you have committed so much already.
“I have good form coming into this so I’ve still got a lot of ambition for the race. It is only day three. It is just such an unpredictable race. The key to this race is to have strength and depth in your team, which we’ve got. I’ve got ambitions. I think I can win it.”
Dan Craven was happy to retain the yellow jersey – at least his team was – and he paid tribute to their effort.
“It was a really tough day,” he said.
“I could not believe how hard they were riding. From being threatened with losing the yellow jersey to pulling it back to 17 seconds, I thank them.
“The best form of defence is attack and that’s what we tried in the 20-man breakaway but unfortunately it was just too big and there were riders there who were not quite dedicated to it.”
None of the riders involved in Monday’s crash started yesterday and the last remaining member of the Spanish team retired early in the stage.
Today’s stage takes the riders to Tipperary Town.
