Winning a two-man sprint to the line in Carlow, Italian rider Francesco Reda grabbed the first yellow jersey of this year's An Post Rás when he beat breakaway companion Lukas Postlberger (Tirol Cycling Team) at the end of Sunday's 154.4 kilometre opening stage.
The duo were part of a 15-man breakaway which got a gap just over 20 kilometres after the start in Dunboyne and were never seen again by the main bunch.
Various riders, including last year's overall winner Clemens Fankhauser (Hrinkow Advarics Cycleangteam) and Irishman Conor Dunne (An Post Chain Reaction) tried to get across, but were unable to do so.
The move contained three Irish riders, namely Dunne's team-mate Ryan Mullen, the current national champion, as well as former world scratch race champion Martyn Irvine (Madison Genesis) and county rider Ian Richardson (Dublin UCD).
Also present was Fankhauser's team-mate Josef Benetseder, former Team Sky rider Joshua Edmondson (An Post Chain Reaction), Reda and Postlberger, Sebastian Schonberger (Tirol Cycling Team), Team 3M trio Jaap de Man, Elliott Porter and Christophe Steurs, Irvine's team-mate Erick Rowsell, Robert Partridge (NFTO), Michael Cuming (JLT Condor) and Marco Tizza (Team IDEA 2010 ASD).
Category-three climb
Mullen took the category-three climb at Sherlockstown (km 23.9) and Edmondson was first to the top at Boherboy (km 50.3), but Porter’s consistency there and at Hacketstown (km 80.4) and Kilcommon (km 91.2) saw him end the day in the mountains jersey.
Irvine was focused after his recent win in the Shay Elliott Memorial and took a total of six bonus seconds when he won the intermediate sprints at Naas (km 28.7) and Clonegal (km 120.8).
However his chance of ending the day in yellow evaporated when Reda and Postlberger broke clear with over 30 kilometres remaining. They were first and second at the sprint in Ballon (km 132.5) and continued on to the finish, where Reda was quickest in the gallop.
