Irish-registered American-born Cormac McGeough made up for his disappointment at losing his general classification chances on Thursday's second stage of the Rás by winning stage three in Cahir on Friday.
The 27-year-old from Snoqualmie, Washington, was part of a ten-man breakaway which pushed clear with approximately 30km remaining and which had a lead of 46 seconds over the peloton with 15km left on the clock.
The gap narrowed closer to the line, with McGeough, riding for the Canel’s Java team, attacking solo inside the final five kilometres and holding on to win by three seconds ahead of fellow Irishman John Buller (Spellman Dublin Port CT), Odhran Doogan (Team Ireland) and the rest of the group.
Overnight race leader Dom Jackson (Foran CT) finished in the main bunch 18 seconds back and held the yellow jersey.
He remains on the same overall time as stage two winner Conn McDunphy (Skyline-Cadence) and Liam O’Brien (Team Ireland).
McGeough finished second overall last year behind Dillon Corkery (Team Ireland) but slipped back on Thursday’s tough mountain stage. Responding as he did on Friday to take the win was the best thing for his morale.
"It feels fantastic. I’m delighted," he said of his first ever Rás Tailteann stage win.
"It’s hard to do better than second overall as well. A stage win was definitely on the list of things I wanted to accomplish.
"I obviously wanted to start and see how the general classification fight went, but I lost time yesterday on the climbs. To be able to win the stage today is great. To be able to bounce back and win the stage is wonderful."
Earlier O’Brien, defending Rás champion Corkery, last year’s longtime race leader Conor McGoldrick (Richardsons Trek DAS) and Warren Ewan Scanlon (Brocar Rali Ale) went clear on the category 3 climb of Doneraille, just before the riders completed 100 kilometres from the start in Kenmare.
These stayed out front for over ten kilometres before being recaptured.
Jackson said it was a testing day and one which required a lot of vigilance.
"It was super nervous. It just was so fast. No one was willing to let something actually stay away. So it was just attack, attack, attack, attack," he said.
"I looked down at one point and we’d already done 80k. It felt like I’d only been riding for maybe just over an hour. Obviously that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but it was crazy.
"Hats off to Team Ireland, they clearly had a plan and caught a lot of guys napping, including myself. I think the only reason it came back was it still had quite a long way to go. And our group was maybe 20 guys, with maybe eight or so who were keen to bring it back."
He added that having the sprinters’ teams trying to reel in the breakaway was a big help.
"Had they not been there, I would not be stood here now [as race leader]. So yeah, I owe lots of people some beers probably. It’s another awesome day."
Stage two winner McDunphy had started the day third overall but moved up to second ahead of O’Brien by virtue of better accumulated stage placings.
They are on the same overall time as Jackson, and will search for any opportunity to open a gap on Saturday and Sunday.
Day four on Saturday features six climbs, including the category one climb of the race, that of Gorteen. That comes after two earlier, easier category three climbs, and while a pair of second category ascents lie between Castlecomer and Carlow, a flatter 60km run in to the finish in Kildare town may well see a partial or full regrouping.
However O’Brien, Corkery and many others are sure to try to attack, particularly as things are so tight.
"We’ll try whatever we can," O’Brien said. "I felt good yesterday and good again today. Usually I build into the races, and there are two more days to come. So I’m all in."
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