Byrne holds slender lead in Suir Valley
Byrne, of the UK-based Champion System-MaxGear team, won Saturday’s opening stage in truly biblical conditions and in yesterday’s split stages he finished in the same time as those closest to him on the overall standings to stay in the race leader’s yellow jersey.
Today’s stage takes the riders 130 kilometres from Clonmel to the summit finish of the Nire – but there are two punishing climbs along the way so it’s still very much all to play for.
But Byrne’s team have been immense so far, shutting down any dangerous moves that escaped yesterday and the Blackpool man admits he’s very confident about winning overall, despite his slender advantage.
“I’m not so much surprised but happy to be still leading the race. I did say I wanted to win overall, so I can’t be surprised that I’m leading. But I also couldn’t be in this position without the team; they all rode very well all weekend, we covered everything yesterday morning and evening.
“This race has been my main aim as well as the An Post Rás back in May, but I was injured from a crash for that so had to miss it. I’ve been really trying to get fit again for this. We’re in a great position now, and we’re looking forward to today.”
Saturday’s break contained 11 riders who moved clear of the peloton after 40 kilometres and stayed away to contest the finish in Cahir, with Byrne taking it from McCrystal and Mark Dowling (DID Dunboyne) in third.
Yesterday morning it was a special day for local man Sean Hahessy (Iverk Produce Carrick Wheelers) who won the stage from Ryan Sherlock (Top Team) and Jonathen Creegan (Wallis Cycles) while in last night’s criterium race Ken Tobin (Cycling Leinster) won the criterium race around the town.
Chris Reilly (Liquidworx-Fitscience) leads the King of the Mountains classification while McCrystal leads the Points classification.
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