The classification leaders at the start of Stage 4 - Green John Kenny (Navan RC), Red Shane Baker (Usher IRC), White Dylan Foley (Irish Devl Squad) and Yellow Liam Blanchfield (Bray Wheelers) - Photo courtesy of Andrew Usher

Some pictures from the event taken by Peter Purfield

33km into the 91km stage a large breakaway of 20 riders has gone clear

The Yellow jersey Liam Blanchfield (Bray Wheelers) leads the bunch

55km to go: The leaders turn right in Tullow and get some help with a tailwind as they head straight to the finish -The group is well organised and setting a good pace

The bunch is all together and the gap is 1' 50"

The leaders

The gap is getting close to 2 minutes now

The Yellow jersey is consistently near the front

The leaders turn left through Rathville were the road is covered with diesel oil as the drop down through the village

The constant rain is not that heavy and fortunately it's not cold

The gap to the bunch is still hovering around 2 minutes

Back to the break

The bunch

The rains gets heavy again

The bunch are still holding the gap and the speed is high considering the conditions

20km to go for the leaders

The bunch

Back with the leaders

Some tired faces now

The bunch keep the pressure on and get some glimpse of the break on the long straights

The break with 15km to go

The remaining part of the stage is continued on page two