Bitter blow for Sherlock as ‘caped’ Bakker slips Rás field

Ryan Sherlock was so disappointed he could hardly speak at the Killorglin finish yesterday after being denied the overall win at the Kerry Group Rás Mumhan in the cruellest possible way.

From the elation of taking the yellow jersey on Sunday, the Iverk Produce/Carrick Wheelers rider lost it in the closing stages yesterday by a mere 12 seconds when Dennis Bakker (Ruiter Dakkapellen) won the final leg with a break 40k out. But Sherlock didn’t know he was up the road, and sat comfortably in the bunch, until he was told with eight kilometres to go that the jersey was in jeopardy.

Bakker started the day in third overall, 44 seconds down, but on the 10 laps of Killorglin his gap to Sherlock’s group fluctuated around the one minute mark. As soon as Sherlock found out the jersey was slipping, he went to the front and drilled a relentless pace.