Dillon Corkery with Irish stage win on penultimate day of Rás

Dillon Corkery has broken the British dominance at this year´s Rás Tailteann with a stunning bunch sprint victory on the finish line of today´s penultimate stage to Monaghan town.

The Corkman, riding in the colours of the national team this week, went one better than yesterday´s second place with a last-gasp lunge to take the stage honours from Finn Crockett (Derry Foyle CC) and Matthew Fox (Wheelbase Cabtech Castelli) who were runner-up and third, respectively.

In the absence of defending champion Daire Feeley, who had to withdraw from the race after yesterday's heavy crash where he suffered a slight concussion, the Irish have had little to shout about this week.

Added to that was the loss of another big General Classification hopeful, Conn McDunphy, who also came down yesterday. Though he is still in the race - and leads the Best County Rider Classification - he lost enough time yesterday to be ruled out of the running for the race leader's yellow jersey worn by Conor McGoldrick.

But Corkery, one of the top amateurs in the country and based in France, took the biggest win of his career to date and kept himself right in the hunt for the overall going into the final day tomorrow.

Corkery is currently seventh overall, 19 seconds down on race leader McGoldrick who endured another day of sustained attacks from those closest to him on the standings.

"It was absolutely fantastic day," reflected Corkery afterwards.

"I want to give a massive shout out to the Cycling Ireland boys - Patrick O´Loughlin, Aaron Wade, Odhran Doogan and Ewan Warren. We are such a young team but they did such an incredible job and I was happy to be able to finish it off for my family, for the boys and for anyone else who came out here to watch me."

The race