Conn McDunphy and Liam O'Brien remain in hunt for Rás Tailteann success

Irish riders Conn McDunphy and Liam O'Brien remain locked on time with the British overall leader Dom Jackson at the end of Saturday’s penultimate stage of the Rás Tailteann, with all three finishing in the main bunch on a tough hilly stage to Kildare town.

It was won by Tom Martin (Wheelbase-Cabtech-Castelli), who finished two seconds clear of fellow Briton Will Perrett (Spirit TBW Stuart Hall Cycling).

They and the Irishman Conal Scully (Dan Morrissey Primor by Pissei) broke clear with approximately 45km remaining, with Martin and Perrett staying clear to fight for the stage win.

"I'm really pleased to finally win a stage here. I’m made up," Martin said.

"I took my chance around 45km to go. Then two more lads came across, Will Perrett and another lad, and we rode pretty well together. I knew Will was dead keen on moving up the GC so I had that at the back of my mind and jumped him at 3km to go for a solo stage win."

The peloton finished 18 seconds back, keeping Jackson in yellow. He had a very nervous time inside the first ten kilometres of the 139.2km race from Horse and Jockey when defending champion Dillon Corkery bridged across to a six-man breakaway group including his Ireland teammate Dean Harvey and, collaborating well together, opened a gap of 1’40. This put Corkery into the provisional race lead.

"It wasn't really the plan, to be honest. We had a bit of a tactic in place, and it wasn't to happen that early on. But I kind of used the crosswind to my advantage at the beginning. I put it in the gutter, and nobody could follow.

"I got across to a group of five or six lads there. I had Dean in the move with me, Dean did all the driving all day. In fairness, the gap went out to 1’40. But I suppose when you've got 150 lads