2026 Rás Mumhan: stages 1a and 1b report and results
Josh Callaly powered to a brilliant stage win in Knockanure as Pinergy–Orwell Wheelers seized yellow on the opening day — with Foran CT's Levitt and Riwnyj sitting inside the top ten and Archie Peet announcing himself in fifth.
Josh Callaly (Velo Performance Racing) powered to a brilliant stage win in Knockanure as Liam Crowley (Pinergy–Orwell Wheelers) seized yellow on the opening day — with Foran CT’s Levitt and Riwnyj sitting inside the top ten and Archie Peet (O’Neills Spirit) announcing himself in fifth.
The Dornan Rás Mumhan is one of the most significant stage races on the Irish calendar — a four-day Easter weekend test across the roads of Kerry, Cork, and Limerick that has long served as a proving ground for the riders who go on to matter. Ben Healy won here in 2019; Luke Tuckwell in 2024, now at RedBull-BORA–hansgrohe; Tom Martin, who claimed the overall last year in a remarkable final-day reversal, did so as one of the strongest riders on the British domestic scene. The race attracts international teams from the Netherlands and Norway alongside Ireland’s best domestic squads, and in 2026 it has drawn a meaningful British contingent: Foran CT, Halesowen Academy–Mapei, O’Neills Spirit RT, and Ride Revolution Coaching have all made the trip to Kerry, along with the Spokes RT–Oscar Onley Development junior squad and a Cycling Ulster selection, and the opening day gave each of them something to think about heading into the weekend’s harder stages.
Good Friday’s racing began with a 9.2-kilometre team time trial along the exposed Atlantic coastline from Ballybunion to Asdee, before reconvening in the afternoon for an 83-kilometre road race from Athea to Knockanure. By the end of it, the yellow jersey had changed shoulders once — from Pinergy–Orwell Wheelers’ Evan Keane to teammate Liam Crowley — and a 19-year-old had announced himself to anyone paying attention.
Stage 1a — Team Time Trial, Ballybunion to Asdee
The 9.2-kilometre TTT along the exposed North Kerry coastline was rapid and unforgiving — 54.57km/h average over technical roads that offered a stiff early test of judgement. The route began with roughly a kilometre of 5% climbing out of Ballybunion before dragging on to the 6km mark, then tipped into a downhill finish; the wind, meanwhile, shifted from a cross-tailwind in the early kilometres to a roaring tailwind through the final section — a combination that rewarded careful pacing as much as raw power.
Pinergy–Orwell Wheelers, who have built a formidable reputation at youth and junior level in recent seasons, announced themselves as a different proposition at senior level in 2026: they stopped the clock at 10’07″32, with Liam Crowley, Evan Keane, and Seán O’Kane the counting trio through Asdee, Keane taking the initial yellow jersey on crossing the line first.
Dom Jackson in time trial action. Image: Caroline Kerley
Limburg Cycling Selection were second, under five seconds back, Camiel Klignet quickest of their riders over the day’s KOM. Team Dan Morrissey completed the top three at six seconds, Matteo Cigala — the Italian veteran who won on this road last year — among the riders putting down a quiet early marker.
Among the British teams, Foran CT placed fourth at 12 seconds — a solid platform for the overall. Nathan Levitt, Danylo Riwnyj, and Ollie Hucks appear to have been the counting trio, while Dom Jackson arrived in 10’44″79 and Thomas Doig in 10’58″67 — over half a minute back. Halesowen Academy–Mapei were fifth at 18 seconds, Harry Howlett and Luke Mannings inside their counting riders.
Image: Caroline Kerley
O’Neills Spirit RT placed 11th at 27 seconds — a result team manager Josh Parkin was content with. “11th in the TTT, 28 seconds down in a crosswind — couldn’t ask for much more from the boys,” he told The British Continental. The five-man lineup of Archie Peet, Max Duckworth, Felix Earth, Huw Cressey-Rogers, and Iwan Clark had set the stage for what would follow in the afternoon.
Ride Revolution Coaching finished 18th, a mixed squad of elite and development riders for whom pacing the TTT was a particular challenge. “A bit of a challenge — making sure we didn’t go off too hard, kept hold of enough riders,” team manager Jake Hales told The British Continental, who was racing himself. “Wasn’t a groundbreaking performance; kind of got around, finished mid-pack.” With a road stage barely two hours away, arriving intact was the priority.
Stage 1a result — top 10 teams
Pos
Team
Time
1
Pinergy–Orwell Wheelers
10’07″32
2
Limburg Cycling Selection
+4″82
3
Team Dan Morrissey
+6″02
4
Foran CT
+12″69
5
Halesowen Academy–Mapei
+18″83
6
Velo Performance Racing
+20″21
7
O’Leary Stone Kanturk
+21″93
8
UCD Cycling Club
+22″09
9
West Frisia
+25″67
11
O’Neills Spirit RT
+27″94
Stage 1b — Road Race, Athea to Knockanure
The 83-kilometre road race was, for much of its length, a question of who would make the day’s decisive move — and when it came, roughly 60 kilometres in, it arrived with conviction. The route had given an early indication of what was to come: after the roll-up to the finishing circuit, riders faced a 6-kilometre stepped rolling climb before tackling three and a half laps, each featuring roughly a kilometre of climbing through the finish, a false flat, a descent, and then a rolling, dragging ascent with a tailwind — selective enough that a group was always likely to go.
With just under two laps remaining, an initial group of around ten riders escaped. Shortly after, Danylo Riwnyj (Foran CT) instigated a second move that bridged across, completing the 15-man break that would settle the stage. Gabe Dellar (Ride Revolution Coaching) was briefly in the gap between the two groups, but the move went clear before he could latch on. “Gabe was in the gap for a while but we didn’t quite get there,” said Hales, “so we got him away with a lap to go and he finished in the gap.” Dellar duly rode clear of the bunch and took 16th at 1’04”.
Within the break itself, Riwnyj made another move through the bell — attacking clear and holding the advantage for roughly half of the final lap before being caught by the rest of the group ahead of the sprint for the win.
With the stage to be settled among those 15, attention turned to the final climb through Knockanure — a slightly uphill finish with a cross-headwind cutting across the line, the group lined out along the left gutter in search of shelter. Callaly read it entirely differently.
Ride Revolution in action on stage 1a. Image: Caroline Kerley
With around 400 metres to go, the 19-year-old launched early and went right, straight into the wind. It was the kind of move that should have gone wrong — exposed, premature, against all conventional wisdom — but Callaly simply had the power to sustain it. He opened a gap immediately and, though he was hurting badly through the final 100 metres, the chasers could not close it. “I came with speed from the back and I was able to get a gap pretty quick — about 20 metres, I’d say,” he said to the Rás Mumhan organisers afterwards. “I started dying about 100 metres to go but luckily I had just enough and was able to hold on because they were coming fast from behind.” Lars Rouffaer (Limburg Cycling Selection) finished second, Sebastian Robles Larsen (West Frisia) third, all three on the same time. The force of Callaly’s effort had strung the group out by ten seconds from first to last — Crowley arriving fourth, two seconds back, to take the yellow jersey from teammate Evan Keane. It was Callaly’s first win for Velo Performance Racing, and, at 19, one he will carry for a long time.
Archie Peet finished fifth, Max Duckworth tenth — exactly the kind of double return O’Neills Spirit had targeted. “Someone in every move, two men in the final move — Archie and Max — and it played out really well for us, covered the race plan,” said team manager Josh Parkin. Peet’s result moves him to 12th on the general classification at 28 seconds, with Duckworth 14th at 30 seconds.
Riwnyj and Neill — both in the breakaway — completed the stage seventh and eighth respectively, with Levitt 13th; Foran CT leave the opening day with two riders, Levitt and Riwnyj, joint seventh overall at 15 seconds. Ollie Hucks finished 22nd, a little over a minute back.
Image: Caroline Kerley
Stage 2 runs on Saturday from Killarney to Portmagee, 131 starters, roll-out at 9:15am — brought forward after Friday’s stage finished at 6pm, leaving a very short turnaround for everyone in the race. The route crosses Bealach Oisín and the Category 1 ascent of Cuam an Easpaig. Gusts of up to 50mph are forecast by the finish, predominantly in a cross-headwind direction — conditions that could string the race out into echelons or, if the wind angle shifts further, reduce it to a slow, attritional grind. With two Foran CT riders inside the top ten, Peet well positioned for a stage that suits climbers, and a yellow jersey whose team will now be expected to defend it on Kerry’s hardest roads, the race is far from settled.
Josh Callaly (Velo Performance Racing) powered to a brilliant stage win in Knockanure as Liam Crowley (Pinergy–Orwell Wheelers) seized yellow on the opening day — with Foran CT’s Levitt and Riwnyj sitting inside the top ten and Archie Peet (O’Neills Spirit) announcing himself in fifth.
The Dornan Rás Mumhan is one of the most significant stage races on the Irish calendar — a four-day Easter weekend test across the roads of Kerry, Cork, and Limerick that has long served as a proving ground for the riders who go on to matter. Ben Healy won here in 2019; Luke Tuckwell in 2024, now at RedBull-BORA–hansgrohe; Tom Martin, who claimed the overall last year in a remarkable final-day reversal, did so as one of the strongest riders on the British domestic scene. The race attracts international teams from the Netherlands and Norway alongside Ireland’s best domestic squads, and in 2026 it has drawn a meaningful British contingent: Foran CT, Halesowen Academy–Mapei, O’Neills Spirit RT, and Ride Revolution Coaching have all made the trip to Kerry, along with the Spokes RT–Oscar Onley Development junior squad and a Cycling Ulster selection, and the opening day gave each of them something to think about heading into the weekend’s harder stages.
Good Friday’s racing began with a 9.2-kilometre team time trial along the exposed Atlantic coastline from Ballybunion to Asdee, before reconvening in the afternoon for an 83-kilometre road race from Athea to Knockanure. By the end of it, the yellow jersey had changed shoulders once — from Pinergy–Orwell Wheelers’ Evan Keane to teammate Liam Crowley — and a 19-year-old had announced himself to anyone paying attention.
Stage 1a — Team Time Trial, Ballybunion to Asdee
The 9.2-kilometre TTT along the exposed North Kerry coastline was rapid and unforgiving — 54.57km/h average over technical roads that offered a stiff early test of judgement. The route began with roughly a kilometre of 5% climbing out of Ballybunion before dragging on to the 6km mark, then tipped into a downhill finish; the wind, meanwhile, shifted from a cross-tailwind in the early kilometres to a roaring tailwind through the final section — a combination that rewarded careful pacing as much as raw power.
Pinergy–Orwell Wheelers, who have built a formidable reputation at youth and junior level in recent seasons, announced themselves as a different proposition at senior level in 2026: they stopped the clock at 10’07″32, with Liam Crowley, Evan Keane, and Seán O’Kane the counting trio through Asdee, Keane taking the initial yellow jersey on crossing the line first.
Limburg Cycling Selection were second, under five seconds back, Camiel Klignet quickest of their riders over the day’s KOM. Team Dan Morrissey completed the top three at six seconds, Matteo Cigala — the Italian veteran who won on this road last year — among the riders putting down a quiet early marker.
Among the British teams, Foran CT placed fourth at 12 seconds — a solid platform for the overall. Nathan Levitt, Danylo Riwnyj, and Ollie Hucks appear to have been the counting trio, while Dom Jackson arrived in 10’44″79 and Thomas Doig in 10’58″67 — over half a minute back. Halesowen Academy–Mapei were fifth at 18 seconds, Harry Howlett and Luke Mannings inside their counting riders.
O’Neills Spirit RT placed 11th at 27 seconds — a result team manager Josh Parkin was content with. “11th in the TTT, 28 seconds down in a crosswind — couldn’t ask for much more from the boys,” he told The British Continental. The five-man lineup of Archie Peet, Max Duckworth, Felix Earth, Huw Cressey-Rogers, and Iwan Clark had set the stage for what would follow in the afternoon.
Ride Revolution Coaching finished 18th, a mixed squad of elite and development riders for whom pacing the TTT was a particular challenge. “A bit of a challenge — making sure we didn’t go off too hard, kept hold of enough riders,” team manager Jake Hales told The British Continental, who was racing himself. “Wasn’t a groundbreaking performance; kind of got around, finished mid-pack.” With a road stage barely two hours away, arriving intact was the priority.
Stage 1a result — top 10 teams
Stage 1b — Road Race, Athea to Knockanure
The 83-kilometre road race was, for much of its length, a question of who would make the day’s decisive move — and when it came, roughly 60 kilometres in, it arrived with conviction. The route had given an early indication of what was to come: after the roll-up to the finishing circuit, riders faced a 6-kilometre stepped rolling climb before tackling three and a half laps, each featuring roughly a kilometre of climbing through the finish, a false flat, a descent, and then a rolling, dragging ascent with a tailwind — selective enough that a group was always likely to go.
With just under two laps remaining, an initial group of around ten riders escaped. Shortly after, Danylo Riwnyj (Foran CT) instigated a second move that bridged across, completing the 15-man break that would settle the stage. Gabe Dellar (Ride Revolution Coaching) was briefly in the gap between the two groups, but the move went clear before he could latch on. “Gabe was in the gap for a while but we didn’t quite get there,” said Hales, “so we got him away with a lap to go and he finished in the gap.” Dellar duly rode clear of the bunch and took 16th at 1’04”.
Within the break itself, Riwnyj made another move through the bell — attacking clear and holding the advantage for roughly half of the final lap before being caught by the rest of the group ahead of the sprint for the win.
With the stage to be settled among those 15, attention turned to the final climb through Knockanure — a slightly uphill finish with a cross-headwind cutting across the line, the group lined out along the left gutter in search of shelter. Callaly read it entirely differently.
With around 400 metres to go, the 19-year-old launched early and went right, straight into the wind. It was the kind of move that should have gone wrong — exposed, premature, against all conventional wisdom — but Callaly simply had the power to sustain it. He opened a gap immediately and, though he was hurting badly through the final 100 metres, the chasers could not close it. “I came with speed from the back and I was able to get a gap pretty quick — about 20 metres, I’d say,” he said to the Rás Mumhan organisers afterwards. “I started dying about 100 metres to go but luckily I had just enough and was able to hold on because they were coming fast from behind.” Lars Rouffaer (Limburg Cycling Selection) finished second, Sebastian Robles Larsen (West Frisia) third, all three on the same time. The force of Callaly’s effort had strung the group out by ten seconds from first to last — Crowley arriving fourth, two seconds back, to take the yellow jersey from teammate Evan Keane. It was Callaly’s first win for Velo Performance Racing, and, at 19, one he will carry for a long time.
Archie Peet finished fifth, Max Duckworth tenth — exactly the kind of double return O’Neills Spirit had targeted. “Someone in every move, two men in the final move — Archie and Max — and it played out really well for us, covered the race plan,” said team manager Josh Parkin. Peet’s result moves him to 12th on the general classification at 28 seconds, with Duckworth 14th at 30 seconds.
Riwnyj and Neill — both in the breakaway — completed the stage seventh and eighth respectively, with Levitt 13th; Foran CT leave the opening day with two riders, Levitt and Riwnyj, joint seventh overall at 15 seconds. Ollie Hucks finished 22nd, a little over a minute back.
Stage 2 runs on Saturday from Killarney to Portmagee, 131 starters, roll-out at 9:15am — brought forward after Friday’s stage finished at 6pm, leaving a very short turnaround for everyone in the race. The route crosses Bealach Oisín and the Category 1 ascent of Cuam an Easpaig. Gusts of up to 50mph are forecast by the finish, predominantly in a cross-headwind direction — conditions that could string the race out into echelons or, if the wind angle shifts further, reduce it to a slow, attritional grind. With two Foran CT riders inside the top ten, Peet well positioned for a stage that suits climbers, and a yellow jersey whose team will now be expected to defend it on Kerry’s hardest roads, the race is far from settled.
Stage 1b result — top 10
General classification — after stages 1a and 1b
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