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Irish Independent
24-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Independent
George Kimber outsprints Team Ireland duo to take yellow jersey on penultimate Rás stage
Kimber went clear with the Irish duo over the top of the Wolftrap climb after 114km of the 128km fourth stage, and admitted afterwards that he was hanging onto their coat tails on the rise to the summit. 'It was Ireland that kept the pace high on the climb,' said Kimber afterwards. 'My position was pretty good but then they went really hard from the bottom and I was probably about 10 or 15 wheels back. 'I know how well those guys climb, so I went full gas to get over to them. They had me on the limit to be fair, as I was the only 70 kg-plus guy left, but I said to them basically 'If you take it steady on the steep bits, I'll help you over the top'. I think they needed me on the fast bits and we worked well together.' Overnight leader Odhran Doogan found himself in the chase group behind, which also contained most of the top ten overall, including Irish duo Matthew Teggart and 2022 winner Daire Feeley, but they couldn't match the lead trio on the run-in to Mountrath. By the time Mexican Sebastian Brenes led them over the line 14km later, they had lost 28 seconds to stage winner Kimber. 'I was glad we didn't play games because that could have ruined our chances of keeping the gap but the commitment was there,' said 25-year-old Kimber, who began the day just six seconds off the race lead. 'We were sort of team time trialling it until about 300 metres to go and I just backed my sprint in the end. I've been sprinting quite well this year. 'I don't know them [Harvey and Meehan] personally but just being the only big guy left, I was pretty confident. This is huge for me. It's the biggest win of my career, so I'm really happy at the moment.' Kimber now leads the Rás by five seconds from Meehan, with previous leader Doogan dropping to third at 22 seconds with Matteo Cigala at 25 seconds, Brenes at 28 seconds, Feeley at 32 seconds and Teggart and the rest of the top ten at 33 seconds. As well as the yellow jersey, most of the other jerseys in the race changed hands with Pan American road-race silver medallist Brenes taking over the green jersey of points leader. Meehan took the white of under 23 leader and Doogan wearing the blue jersey of best county rider overall. The only jersey that didn't change hands was the Irish independent King of the Mountains jersey. Alan Lewis of Team Skyline consolidated his lead in the competition by taking points at the summit of both Portumna and Wolftrap. With just one climb left on Sunday's stage, that almost guarantees victory in the classification. 'After wearing it all week keeping it was definitely one of the goals for today,' said Lewi. 'I was also hoping to maybe move up on GC and try and take yellow as well. It was full gas from the bottom of the last climb. 'The Irish lads set a very hard pace all the way up and unfortunately I lost contact a few hundred metres from the top and got caught by the second group with 4km to go, so that didn't work out. But this was the primary goal and that has been a success, so I can ride into Bective tomorrow with the jersey.' With just a 143km mainly flat stage to Bective remaining on in the Rás, new race leader Kimber hopes to retain his yellow jersey by simply doing what he has done all week. 'As I've been doing this whole race, I'll just be keeping an eye on the strong guys and keep following them,' he said. 'There's no need to overcomplicate it. I don't need to make the race. I just need to follow. That'll be the plan.'
Irish Independent
22-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Independent
Donegal's Odhran Doogan ‘over the moon' after clinching Rás yellow jersey as Will Perrett wins stage two
British rider Will Perrett won stage two into Clifden six seconds ahead of a small chasing group with Doogan third behind Josh Charlton of Great Britain and one place ahead of 2022 winner Daire Feeley (Burren Racing) on the stage,after the peloton shattered to pieces across the five categorised climbs. Overnight race leader Tim Shoreman missed the major move of the day and lost over two minutes, so having started the stage in third place overall, five seconds off Shoreman, Doogan takes over the yellow jersey of Rás leader. 'I'm over the moon. I couldn't be happier,' smiled the 21-year-old from Gortahork afterwards. 'It was a pretty messy day. It was hard to know who was still away, there were that many attacks and counter attacks all day. 'I definitely rode a bit too hard at the start. I looked down and there were still 100km to go, so I fell back through the bunch and kind of gathered myself and recovered. By the time I got back up the front there was actually quite a strong group gone, so I knew I was going to have to knuckle down and ride hard to get across. 'I was lucky enough to get away with a pretty strong group on a big stretch or road with about 20km to go. We caught them with about 10km to go and I thought I had a pretty good chance at the stage win. Unfortunately, I didn't win the stage but I maybe went one better taking the yellow.' Although the race is now in its 70th year, Doogan is the first Donegal rider to wear yellow. 'It's pretty special when you consider the riders that have come out of Donegal,' he says. 'I put in the effort to get the yellow so I'm going to try my best to hold onto it. But we're not even halfway through the Ras. It's so unpredictable that one minute you could be up the road, the next you could be out the back, but the main goal is try to keep it." In the finale of today's 171km stage, Perrett followed a late move by Skyline's Cian Keogh just after two groups merged at the front in the final kilometres. When Keogh blew up, Perrett had the legs to keep going and take the stage win. 'At the end, lots of people were giving it digs,' Perret said. 'Cian Keogh launched one and I went after him. I managed to get on his wheel and I came through just as we hit this hard drag at the end. 'I looked back and I had dropped him off the wheel because he had obviously gone really hard on the flat. I saw that I had a gap and I just committed for the final 3km and was off the front on my own. I'm really happy. This is my first win at the Rás. I'm a bit gutted to have crashed yesterday and lost about 40 seconds because I would have been in yellow today but I'm really happy to get the win.' While Doogan now hogs the yellow, green, and white jerseys of overall leader, points leader, and leading U-23 rider, Adam Lewis of USA Skyline managed to defend his Irish independent King of the Mountains jersey, taking second over the top of the last four climbs today and now has an 11-point cushion over nearest challenger Jamie Meehan of the Irish national team. 'There was a big fight over the five climbs today and I managed to pick up quite a few points and extend my lead,' said the British rider. 'Hopefully we can defend it now for the last three days of the race.' Stage three sees the riders tackle 163km from Cong to Miltown Malbay with three categorised climbs along the way.
Irish Examiner
22-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Shoreman leads after Day 1 of 70th Rás Tailteann
British rider Tim Shoreman took the opening stage of the 70th Rás Tailteann on Wednesday in a sprint finish. The Wheelbase/Cabtech/Castelli rider stormed clear ahead of Niall McLoughlin (Connacht Cycling), with another British cyclist, Will Tidball, taking third. Odhran Doogan of Cycling Ulster finished seventh in the group sprint, but ends up third overall after winning two bonus sprints. The 145 riders covered 155.5km on the opening day, from Drogheda to Boyle. A delighted McLoughlin told RTE Sport: "The streets were really, really tight, really technical. A lot of left and right-handers, so you had to be right at the front right to the finish. "It was a really cool finish, it suited me, especially just the twisting and turning." In the first King of the Mountains battle at Oldcastle Legends, Adam Lewis (Team Skyline) was first followed by Callum Salisbury (Isle of Man), Gareth O'Neill (Dan Morrissey – Pissei), and Tom Martin (Wheelbase/Cabtech/Castelli). Thursday's stage two is the longest stage, covering 170.9km from Charlestown to Clifden, with five categorised climbs, including the category one Windy Gap.
Irish Independent
14-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Independent
WIN: An exclusive Rás Tailteann King of the Mountains jersey
Today at 08:25 It's not long until the 70th edition of the Rás Tailteann kicks off and to celebrate the Irish Independent's sponsorship of the 2025 King of the Mountains jersey, we have a special competition for our readers. The race takes place from May 21 to May 25 and we have five exclusive jerseys to give away before then. To enter click here.
ABC News
03-05-2025
- Sport
- ABC News
Jay Vine wins stage three of Tour de Romandie in Switzerland
Jay Vine has added to Australia's recent cycling success in Europe, surging clear in the final kilometre to steal the third stage of the Tour de Romandie in Switzerland. The 29-year-old Townsville rider's brilliant effort came 24 hours after Loading Twitter content Vine's win was also emotional for the UAE Team Emirates star. It was his first individual World Tour victory in Europe since his terrible crash at last year's Tour of the Basque Country, during which he feared he might never walk again. Vine broke two vertebrae, but was back racing four months later. His remarkable recovery culminated when he claimed the King of the Mountains classification at the Vuelta a España in September. "It's pretty incredible. It's been a long road back to recovery from my neck injury last year," Vine said. "It's three wins this year so far, and my first World Tour win in a long time, so I'm really happy." Photo shows Sophie Marr crosses the line as Talia Appleton is bent over Sophie Marr and Jack Ward have earned development contracts with Australian professional teams Liv AlUa Jayco and Jayco AlUla in a thrilling finale to the inaugural ProVelo Super League. It was a brilliant piece of opportunism that propelled Vine to victory just after the "flamme rouge" one-kilometre-to-go marker on the 183.1km trek around Cossonay in the west of Switzerland. "The first two hours had been really, really hard, felt like it was being motor paced," he said. But after that climb, the gap was being reduced to (the leader) Stefan (Kung), and I thought, 'OK, I gotta be up here in this group to minimise time gaps, so I might as well see what I can do and have a crack.'" Vine's win leaves him sixth in the general classification, 41 seconds behind French leader Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost), but with two stages to come, one a brutal climbing test and the other an individual time trial, he's not ruling out the prospect of winning the race on Sunday. "Yeah, it's all to play for tomorrow, and then the time trial on Sunday. I'm really looking forward to that, ahead of the Giro d'Italia. The GC is still wide open," he said. AAP The ABC of SPORT Sports content to make you think... or allow you not to. A newsletter delivered each Saturday. Your information is being handled in accordance with the Email address Subscribe
