GB national team rider Anna Shackley leaped to the top of the general classification at Rás na mBan on Saturday morning, winning the uphill Tullaroan time trial and taking over the leader's jersey.
Shackley had started the day third overall, level on time with her teammate Abi Smith, who held the lead going into Friday's stage to the Top of the Cut and who was first to the line then.
Smith dug deep to try to hold her race lead but came up five seconds short in the time trial. Ireland's Kelly Murphy was third, 34 seconds behind Shackley, while stage two winner Loes Adegeest was a further 10 seconds back in fourth. Irish duo Linda Kelly (Cycling Munster) and Alice Sharpe (Ireland National Team) completed the top six.
The time trial broke the deadlock amongst the top four riders overall. The lack of time bonuses on the road race stages meant that they were on the same overall time but, following the time trial, Shackley is five seconds clear of Smith and 44 seconds clear of Adegeest.
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Ireland's Sharpe, who had started the day second overall, drifts to fourth, 57 seconds back. Murphy and Natalie Grinczer (CAMS-Basso) are fifth and sixth.
The stage race continues on Saturday evening with a criterium in Kilkenny City, and concludes on Sunday afternoon. It is Ireland’s biggest competitive cycling event for women and features a large number of international teams.
Meanwhile Dillon Corkery was best of the Irish riders in this morning’s under-23 road race at the European road championships in Trento, Italy.
Belgian rider Thibau Nys won a seven-man sprint to take the title, the world junior cyclocross champion beating Filippo Baroncini (Italy), Juan Ayuso (Spain) and four others. Corkery finished 29th, one minute 31 seconds back, while Adam Ward was 53rd.
There were only 67 finishers out of the 148 starters, with four other Irish riders amongst the many retirements. The short, difficult 13.2 kilometre laps on the race route has led to race officials directing distanced riders to withdraw from the event.
The European championships continues this afternoon with the Elite women's road race. Ireland has two entrants, namely Megan Armitage and Ellen McDermott.
Rás na mBan
Stage 4 Tullaroan time trial: 1 Anna Shackley (GB National Team) 13 mins 20.29 secs, 2 A Smith (GB National Team) at 5, 3 K Murphy (Ireland National Team) at 34, 4 L Adegeest (Jan van Arkel) at 44, 5 L Kelly (Cycling Munster) at 54, 6 A Sharpe (Ireland National Team) at 57, 7 I Cotter (Ireland National Team) at 1 min 7, 8 N Coates (Torelli-Assure-Cayman Islands-Scimitar) same time, 9 N Grinczer (CAMS-Basso) at 1 min 8, 10 F Yapura Plaza (Team Macadam's Cowboys) at 1 min 16
Young riders: 1 Anna Shackley (GB National Team) 13 mins 20.29, 2 A Smith (GB National Team) at 5, 3 N Coates (Torelli-Assure-Cayman Islands-Scimitar) at 1 min 7, 4 K Schmid (LUX Cycling) at 1 min 35, 5 C Side (Pro-Noctis-Redchilli Bikes-Heidi Kjeldsen) at 6 mins 12
Team classification: 1 Ireland National Team 42 mins 38, 2 GB National Team at 1 sec, 3 CAMS-Basso at 2 mins 38, 4 Pro-Noctis-Redchilli Bikes-Heidi Kjeldsen at 3 mins 27, 5 LUX Cycling at 3 mins 30
Individual classification after stage 4: 1 Anna Shackley (GB National Team) 7 hours 4 mins, 2 A Smith (GB National Team) at 5, 3 L Adegeest (Jan van Arckel) at 44, 4 A Sharpe (Ireland National Team) at 57, 5 K Murphy (Ireland National Team) at 1 min 15, 6 N Grinczer (CAMS-Basso) at 1 min 49, 7 I Cotter (Ireland National Team) at 1 min 55, 8 K Schmid (LUX Cycling) at 2 mins 10, 9 F Yapura Plaza (Team Macadam's Cowboys) at 2 mins 30, 10 D Shrosbree (Team LDN - Brother UK) at 4 mins 19
Points classification: 1 Abi Smith (GB National Team) 28 points, 2 K Schmid (LUX Cycling) 25, 3 A Sharpe (Ireland National Team) 19, 4 L Adegeest (Jan van Arckel) 17, 5 A Shackley (GB National Team) 15
Queen of the hills classification after stage 4: 1 Anna Shackley (GB National Team) 36 points, 2 A Smith (GB National Team) 25, 3 L Adegeest (Jan Van Arckel) 20, 4 A Sharpe (Ireland National Team) 20, 5 J Tindley (Pro-Noctis-Redchilli Bikes-Heidi Kjeldsen) 17
Young riders: 1 Anna Shackley (GB National Team) 7 hours 4 mins, 2 A Smith (GB National Team) at 5, 3 K Schmid (LUX Cycling) at 2 mins 10, 4 G Lehnert (LUX Cycling) at 5 mins 14, 5 N Coates (Torelli-Assure-Cayman Islands-Scimitar) at 5 mins 25
Best British rider: 1 Anna Shackley (GB National Team) 7 hours 4 mins, 2 A Smith (GB National Team) at 5, 3 N Grinczer (CAMS-Basso) at 1 min 49
Best Ireland-based domestic rider: 1 Linda Kelly (Cycling Munster) 7 hours 11 mins 27, 2 B Woods (Cycling Munster) at 5 mins 23, 3 O Walsh (UCD) at 8 mins 44, 4 C McCarthy (Women's Cycling Ireland A) at 12 mins 4, 5 E Tutty (Women's Cycling Ireland A) at 12 mins 56
Team classification: 1 Ireland National Team 21 hours 16 mins 7, 2 LUX Cycling at 8 mins 52, 3 GB National Team at 14 mins 2, 4 Pro-Noctis-Redchilli Bikes-Heidi Kjeldsen at 18 mins 58, 5 CAMS-Basso at 24 mins 28
Paddy Doran best Irish team: 1 Women's Cycling Ireland A 22 hours 18 mins 43, 2 UCD at 8 mins, 3 Cycling Munster at 11 mins 54, 4 Women's Cycling Ireland B at 55 mins 44
European road championships, Trento, Italy
Under-23 road race: 1 Thibau Nys (Belgium) 133.6 kilometres in 3 hours 6 mins 57 secs, 2 F Baroncini (Italy), 3 J Ayuso (Spain), 4 E Fetter (Hungary), 5 L Van Eetvelt (Belgium) all same time
Other: 29 D Corkery (Ireland) at 1 min 31, 53 A Ward (Ireland) at 6 mins
DNF: M Devins, D Shortt, K McCambridge, A Wade.
