Moynihan plays his cards to perfection

Former international rower turned bike rider, Cathal Moynihan won yesterday’s opening stage of the Kerry Group Rás Mumhan for the biggest win of his career and the first leaders’ yellow jersey of this year’s race.

The Tralee BC/Manor West Hotel rider, who rowed for Ireland in the Beijing Olympics in 2008, made the decisive 11-man escape that broke away from the peloton after 75 kilometres and they managed to pull out a gap of just under a minute by the end of the 105 kilometre trek which started and finished in Killorglin.

Moynihan played his cards to perfection on the swift run-in for home, jumping clear with Holland’s Sjors Dekker with 700 metres to go before beating him in the race for the line.