Mark Dowling comes home alone at Des Hanlon Memorial in Carlow

Mark Dowling won the Des Hanlon Memorial in stunning fashion yesterday, blitzing the stellar field to win before a huge crowd in Carlow.

The DID Electrical Dunboyne rider had around 40 seconds to spare on Ryan Sherlock (Unattached) who was next over the line while Robin Kelly (Waterford Racing Team) was third.

Kelly came in at the head of a group of around a dozen riders. That was all that remained of the front group that was whittled down over the 160km race.

“I’m thrilled to win like this; I’ve been training for this race specifically the last four months and to win like that is really special,” he said.

Dowling’s father is the well-known former boxer Mick who was there to celebrate the achievement. “He’s been a good luck charm for me, he’s been there for some of my biggest wins and I’m delighted for him and for myself.”

Michael O’Loughlin of the NRPT-Magnet.ie team took a solo win in the A3-Junior race to improve on his second place last year behind Eddie Dunbar.

O’Loughlin’s teammate Adam Stenson was next home while Jake Gray made it a 1-2-3 for their team when he outsprinted a gallant Dermot White of Lucan CRC for third.

Eamonn Kissane of Killarney CC won the A4 race while Ciara Doogan (Magnet.ie-NRPT) won the women’s race.

Meanwhile, Sam Bennett was 78th in his first Milan-San Remo, the Bora Argon 18 man crossing the line five minutes down on winner John Degenkolb (Giant-Alpecin).