Byrne holds slender lead in Suir Valley

Dillon Byrne holds a one-second advantage over Bryan McCrystal (Aquablue CC) and just a handful of seconds over half a dozen others going into today’s final stage of the Suir Valley 3-Day after an epic weekend’s racing around Tipperary.

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.