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.

But, he crashed on the second last bend, lost valuable seconds, and with Bakker collecting a five second time-bonus for first man over the line, a battered and bloody Sherlock was gutted.

“It’s an opportunity lost and I deserved better. I rode a lot over the last couple of days. I made the race and then just to not get the spoils at the end is disappointing. But that’s just how it works out. My team rode really well for the first 70 or 80k and had it set up pretty well. They covered a bunch of moves but one of the moves went away and I didn’t think it was any of the guys who were in contention.

“That white jersey [Bakker] had a cape over his kit so I didn’t know he was up the road until about two and a half laps to go and then I tried to chase him down and I went a bit too full gas on the second last corner and hit a wall.”

Sherlock tried a frantic recruitment drive to close the gap but that came to nought, something he clearly wasn’t happy about. My team-mates rode their legs off but we got no help from anyone. There was one other guy alright but that was it.”

Having been bettered for the second year in-a-row on the Saturday stage up the Connor Pass and finishing third yesterday after he fluffed his lines on the finish into Waterville, Sherlock eschewed the positives. I still have two big goals left — the Rás and the National Championships — and hopefully I can get a proper team after that.”

In the background, Bakker high- fived his management and toasted his win with team-mates, including Bram Imming who left the race behind him last year when he missed the crucial split on the final day.

Bakker admitted Imming spoke to the team yesterday morning and told them they were not leaving without the yellow jersey this time – their first in 49 years coming to the race.

“This is my first stage win with elite riders and it’s great to win a GC too,” beamed Bakker.

“I am really happy. This morning we saw it was raining and I knew I was strong, I was really strong yesterday too.”