Tullamore hosts start of Rás Tailteann as Pritchard wins stage
Rás Tailteann kicked off in Tullamore yesterday (Wednesday) as Stage 1 of the renowned cycling event took riders from Offaly's county town to Kilmallock over a distance of 147.6 kilometres.
The stage took cyclists south to Birr and the route also incorporated various parts of Tipperary and Limerick, as riders made their way through Borrisokane, Nenagh, Birdhill, Newport, Caherconlish and Bruff, before finishing in Kilmallock.
Ferbane native Mikey Flaherty, a member of Lynx cycling club, competed for the Galway-based Challenge CC Mikey finished the stage in a time of 3 hours, 14 mins and 05 seconds for 124th place.
The stage was won by Alex Pritchard from the UK Richardsons Trek Team, who has the honour of wearuing the first yellow jersey of the race.
Irish man Paul Kennedy, riding as part of the USA Skyline-CADENCE team, finished second, and Dom Jackson from UK Foran CT finished third. Defending champion Dillon Corkery (Team Ireland) finished fourth.
The first Irish county rider home was Matteo Cigala of the Carlow Dan Morrissey Primor by the Pissei team, while Odhran Doogan (Team Ireland) leads the young rider classification.
The two-second advantage over Kennedy and ten-second bonus on the line were enough for Pritchard to take the Bective Stud General Classification Yellow Jersey by one single second from Paul Kennedy. Dom Jackson (who leads The Irish Independent Mountains competition) is three seconds behind in third. Dillon Corkery is fourth overall with a 36-second deficit, with Odhran Doogan in fifth at the same time.
Pritchard also leads the Citybreak Apartments Points Classification Green Jersey competition, but that jersey is worn by Paul Kennedy.
Matteo Cigala was the first Irish county rider home in seventh, so he wears the Sport Ireland Irish County Rider Jersey along with winning the Festina Daily County Rider Award.
Irish teammates Dillon Corkery and Odhran Doogan both wear jerseys. Corkery wears the FBD Stage Winner Jersey as the first three on the stage wear other jerseys. Doogan’s fifth place was enough for him to lead the Spin 11 Under-23 White Jersey.
The final presentation was for Kilmallock man Michael Gammell (Challenge CC), who was the first local rider to finish. Kilmallock came out in force to celebrate the men of the Rás and welcome the first-ever stage finish in the town.