KEVIN MCCAMBRIDGE of Team Trinity Racing won today’s FBD Insurance stage ahead of Matthew Teggart of Team Ireland and with Matteo Cigala of Carlow Dan Morrissey again making the podium in 3rd place.
However, it was Roscommon man, Daire Feeley, of the Cork – All Human Velo Revolution Team, who retained his yellow jersey of overall leader and his advantage of 51 seconds over second placed Louis David Sutton of Team Spain Brocar Ale. Adam Ward of Team Ireland rounded out the final podium in third place, 1’06 in arrears.
In the Cycling Ireland King of the Mountains competition, Dean Harvey did enough to capture the final honours with Feeley also taking the honours in the Bective Stud overall county rider classification.
The Spin11 sponsored U23 classification was won by Louis David Sutton (Team Spain Brocar Ale) and Rory Townsend (Team Ireland) consolidated his lead to win the City Break Apartments sponsored green points jersey.
The final stage was a relatively short route, featuring two categorised climbs at Slane and Collon before the race would enter Blackrock after 95km for four laps of a 10km circuit.
After the flag dropped, the race took off at a ferocious pace averaging 50 km/hr over the first 30 minutes of racing on the roads out of Kinnegad. The peloton wasn’t letting any breaks go in the early phase of the stage, with the lined-out peloton entering Navan at 60 km/hr.
There was plenty of hard racing over the next 30km as the peloton passed over the two categorized climbs in Slane and Collon. Dean Harvey of Team Ireland, who started stage 5 second in the KOH classification, took full points on both climbs, and as a result was confirmed as winner of the Cycling Ireland KOH classification.
Although a number of break attempts were made as the race approached the finish circuit in Blackrock, nothing was sticking as the bunch entered the spectator filled roads of Blackrock, Co. Louth.
Action packed racing followed over the next hour including a dangerous group of four riders going clear building a gap of 30 seconds over the peloton.
They included Ryan, Watson, Perrett and race leader, Feeley. The break worked well together, however, the peloton weren’t letting the gap grow. With 10km remaining, the race was all back together with the pace holding at 50 km/hr as they approached the finish in Blackrock town.
Kevin McCambridge took advantage of a brief stall in the peloton and attacked with 5km remaining. He built an advantage of 10 seconds with the peloton hot on his heels passing through the flamme rouge of 1km to go. McCambridge held on for victory by a small margin with Matthew Teggart of Cycling Ulster winning the bunch sprint for second followed by Matteo Cigala of Carlow: Dan Morrissey in third.
