Dom Jackson takes home yellow jersey at Rás Tailteann

Having started the day on the same time as his nearest rivals, Irish duo Conn McDunphy and Liam O’Brien, Jackson knew he couldn’t let either of them slip up the road today and as the race approached the finishing circuits in Bective, the race leader was on McDunphy’s wheel in a small front group, while O’Brien was 15 seconds adrift in the peloton.

By the second lap however, both Jackson and McDunphy had dropped back to the bunch and it was British rider Will Perrett (UK Spirit) who looked like taking over the race lead as he stayed clear in a group that also contained reigning Rás champion Dillon Corkery (Ireland).

As the rain began to fall in Meath however, the peloton began to get their act together and, despite a late solo attempt from Corkery, who was caught with just 2km remaining, the sprinters had regained contact by the time the race roared towards the finish, where Shoreman showed a clean pair of wheels to take victory ahead of compatriot Jim Browne (Ribble Rebellion), Paul Buller (Spellman Dublin Port ) and the rest of the field.

Jackson however, had done enough to hold onto yellow and went home with the George Plant trophy as overall winner. “I knew this morning it was all up for grabs today,” a visibly relieved and disbelieving Jackson said afterwards. “There were moments today where I nearly had a cry, genuinely. I was like, ‘There are people up the road. I’m knackered. There’s nothing I can do.’ And then, my teammates came out of nowhere and pulled the whole thing back together with the help of some other teams who were interested in a bunch sprint finish. I can’t believe it

Corkery took fourth on the stage ahead of Liam Flanagan (Skyline – Cadence) with former Italian pro Matteo Cigala of Carlow Dan Morrisey crossing the line sixth and victory in the blue jersey competition for best county rider ahead of 2022 winner Daire Feely (Cork velorevolution) and Patrick O’Loughlin of Kerry

Stage winner Shoreman did enough to snatch the green jersey of points classification winner off the shoulders of Ireland’s Ódhran Doogan today.

Although neither McDunphy or O’Brien could find the one second needed to snatch overall victory today, 19-year-old O’Brien had some consolation in taking the white jersey of U23 classification winner on his debut at the Rás, while his national squad teammate Dean Harvey took home the Irish Independent King of the Mountains jersey, having sealed the competition by taking second place on the opening climb of the day at Cromwell’s Bush.