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Last Updated: 14 Oct 2020 - 12:47:15 PM |
Slovenian professional Borut Bozic won an 89 rider bunch sprint to land the third stage of the Tour of Ireland today, a mainly flat 194 kilometre race from Tralee to Ennis.
The Team LPR rider timed his move perfectly, finishing ahead of Bernhard Eisel (T-Mobile), Maximiliano Richeze (Ceramica Panaria Navigare), Baden Cooke (Unibet.com) plus the rest of the peloton.
The Irish Murphy and Gunn/Newlyn Group/M. Donnelly Sean Kelly team tried to set up Paudi O'Brien for the sprint and while they rode very strongly, they mistimed their effort and delivered the Corkman to the front about two kilometres too early. He nevertheless finished a respectable 13th, and the team earned some important TV time.
"Paudi is a good sprinter so I told him that we'd get him up there with five kilometres to go," said Cassidy immediately after the finish. "Things worked out well and we got to the front; we decided to give it everything to keep him up there as long as possible. We didn't have the full team up there and it is very hard to keep going at that pace for too long, but it was good to be up there with the big teams."
Race leader Stijn Vandenbergh (Unibet.com) placed 46th in the sprint and was classified in the same time as the day's winner. He remains in the yellow jersey, 20 seconds clear of Marcus Ljungqvist (CSC). Aaron Olson (T-Mobile team) started the day third overall, 21 seconds back, and while he punctured close to the line and came home 42 seconds down, race rules regarding incidents inside the final three kilometres saw him allocated the same time as the bunch and thus retain his general classification podium place.
The day was marked by a long distance breakaway by six riders. Moises Aldape Chavez (Ceramica Panaria Navigare), Ben Day (Navigators Insurance), Patrick McCarty (Team Slipstream), Zakkari Dempster (South Australia AIS), Dennis Van Winden (Rabobank) and Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Maxbo Bianchi) attacked before the first bonus sprint at Tarbert.
They built a maximum lead of over five minutes but chasing efforts by the CSC, T-Mobile and Unibet teams inside the final two hours of racing saw this gap come right back. They were eventually recaptured with approximately eight kilometres remaining, setting things up for the big bunch sprint and Bozic's victory.
How it happened:
Once again benefiting from mild, dry conditions, 100 riders lined out for the start of the third stage of the Tour of Ireland. The stage took the riders 194 kilometres from Tralee to Ennis, encountering intermediate sprints at Tarbert (km 64.9), Foynes (km 85.1) and Limerick city (km 123.4). They would also cross the third category Cahir Mountain (km 155.5) which comes less than an hour before the front-runners fight it out for stage honours.
There was an aggressive start to the day, with many attacks being fired off. Nothing stuck until six riders clipped away in the run-up to the Tarbert sprint; the sextet were Moises Aldape Chavez (Ceramica Panaria Navigare), Ben Day (Navigators Insurance), Patrick McCarty (Team Slipstream), Zakkari Dempster (South Australia AIS), Dennis Van Winden (Rabobank) and Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Maxbo Bianchi).
The latter has been in excellent form this year and while he is just 20 years old, he has signed a contract with the T-Mobile team for 2008 and 2009. He showed his speed by winning that first sprint ahead of Dempster, Aldape Chavez and McCarty, then did it again 20 kilometres later when he beat Day, McCarty and Dempster to the line in Foynes.
Just under 40 kilometres later they encountered the third sprint of the day in Limerick. Yet again, Boasson Hagen was best, beating Van Winden, Aldape Chaves and Dempster.
The gap at this point was up to 4 minutes 57 seconds but the Unibet.com team started to ramp up the pace, working both for race leader Stijn Vandenbergh and their sprinter Baden Cooke. CSC also started to pull hard in order to help Matti Breschel try for a second successive stage win, and T-Mobile got involved to further Bernhard Eisel's chances.
As a result of these efforts the gap started to fall. McCarty took the top points at the summit of the third category Cahir Mountain, leading Dempster, Day and Boasson Hagen over the line. From there 38.5 kilometres remained and in that time the break's advantage dropped continuously. The junction was finally made with eight kilometres remaining.
The peloton continued to race hard towards the finish. Unibet.com were down a man as Jonas Ljungblad had crashed and, bizarrely, caught his arm in a wheel. The spokes reportedly had to be cut in order for the limb to be freed. Colavita Sutter Home's Adam Bergman also fell but, unlike Ljungblad, he would eventually make it in to the finish.
The Irish Murphy and Gunn/Newlyn Group/M. Donnelly Sean Kelly team were trying to land some success on home turn and they hit the front with approximately 5 kilometres remaining. Mark Cassidy and Stephen Gallagher ramped up the speed to set Paidi O'Brien up but their effort was a bit early and the latter found himself at the front with two kilometres remaining. He was duly swamped and had to try to fight his way back into contention.
Once into the final kilometre Cooke moved towards the front and then hit the jets with perhaps 300 metres to go. He got a gap but the effort proved to have been to soon when others came back at him. Bozic timed it better and flew towards the line, making amends for his premature jump yesterday in taking the win. Eisel gained ground inside the final 100 metres but wasn't able to get by, finishing second ahead of Maximiliano Richeze (Ceramica Panaria Navigare) and Cooke. O'Brien was best of the Irishmen in 13th.
Vandenbergh crossed the line in the middle of the peloton, retaining his 20 second overnight lead over Marcus Ljungqvist (CSC). Aaron Olson (T-Mobile team) punctured and lost 42 seconds; however the incident happened inside the final three kilometres and, as per UCI rules, he was given the same time as the bunch and thus remained 21 seconds back in third overall.
He and the other six contenders who are within striking distance of yellow will start tomorrow's penultimate stage aiming to take over the race lead. The race around Connemara starts and finishes in Galway and is the longest of the race at 232.5 kilometres.
The peloton will scale five climbs in all, namely the second category Finny climb (kilometre 57), the first category Tourmakeady (kilometre 76.5), Leenaun (cat 3, km 152.3), Maumturk (cat 3, km 167.8) and finally Keeagh (cat 2, km 203.1). There are also intermediate sprints in Westport (km 98.1), Louisburgh (km 119.3) and Oughterard (km 187.9).
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Tour of Ireland (2.1, August 22nd - 26th)
1, Borut Bozic (Team LPR) 194 kilometres in 4 hours 21 mins 11 secs
2, Bernhard Eisel (T-Mobile)
3, Maximiliano Richeze (Ceramica Panaria Navigare)
4, Baden Cooke (Unibet.com)
5, Wesley Sulzberger (SouthAustralia.com/ AIS)
6, Matti Breschel (Team CSC)
7, Alexander Kristoff (Team Maxbo Bianchi)
8, Martijn Maaskant (Rabobank)
9, Sergey Lagutin (Navigators Insurance)
10, Sven Nys (Rabobank) all same time
Irish:
13, Paidi O'Brien (Murphy and Gunn/Newlyn Group/M. Donnelly Sean Kelly) same time
29, Martyn Irvine (Ireland)
50, Paul Griffin (Ireland)
51, David O'Loughlin (Ireland)
64, Isaac Speirs (Murphy and Gunn/Newlyn Group/M. Donnelly Sean Kelly)
65, David McCann (Colavita Sutter Home)
73, Stephen Gallagher (Murphy and Gunn/Newlyn Group/M. Donnelly Sean Kelly)
74, Philip Deignan (Ireland)
78, Derek Burke (Murphy and Gunn/Newlyn Group/M. Donnelly Sean Kelly)
79, Mark Cassidy (Murphy and Gunn/Newlyn Group/M. Donnelly Sean Kelly)
82, Brian Kenneally (Ireland)
Primes:
An Post sprint, Tarbert (64.9 km):
1, Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Maxbo Bianchi) 5 pts/3 secs
2, Zakkari Dempster (South Australia AIS) 3 pts/ 2 secs
3, Moises Aldape Chavez (Ceramica Panaria Navigare) 2 pts/ 1 sec
4, Patrick McCarty (Team Slipstream) 1 pt
An Post sprint, Foynes (85.1 km):
1, Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Maxbo Bianchi) 5 pts/3
2, Ben Day (Navigators Insurance) 3 pts/ 2 secs
3, Patrick McCarty (Team Slipstream) 2 pts/1 sec
4, Zakkari Dempster (South Australia AIS) 1 pt
An Post sprint, Limerick (123.4 km):
1, Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Maxbo Bianchi) 5 pts/3
2, Dennis Van Winden (Rabobank) 3 pts/ 2 secs
3, Moises Aldape Chavez (Ceramica Panaria Navigare) 2 pts/1 sec
4, Zakkari Dempster (South Australia AIS) 1 pt
KOM cat 3, Cahir Mountain:
1, Patrick McCarty (Team Slipstream) 6 pts
2, Zakkari Dempster (South Australia AIS) 4
3, Ben Day (Navigators Insurance) 2
4, Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Maxbo Bianchi) 1
DiscoverIreland.com General Classification:
1, Stijn Vandenbergh (Unibet.com) 12 hours 20 mins 8 secs
2, Marcus Ljungqvist (CSC) at 20 secs
3, Aaron Olson (T-Mobile team) at 21 secs
4, Wesley Sulzberger (SouthAustralia.com/AIS) at 24 secs
5, Gabriel Rasch (Team Maxbo Bianchi) at 25 secs
6, Pieter Jacobs (Unibet.com) at 27 secs
7, Valeriy Kobzarenko (Navigators Insurance) at 28 secs
8, Craig Lewis (Team Slipstream) same time
9, Glenn Bak (Murphy and Gunn/Newlyn Group/M. Donnelly Sean Kelly) at 43 secs
10, Matti Breschel (Team CSC) at 13 mins 15 secs
11, Luis Pasamontes (Unibet.com) at 13 mins 28 secs
12, Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Maxbo Bianchi) at 13 mins 30 secs
13, Borut Bozic (Team LPR) at 13 mins 34 secs
13, Bernhard Eisel (T-Mobile) at 13 mins 35 secs
14, Martijn Maaskant (Rabobank) at 13 mins 43 secs
15, Daniel Lloyd (DFL/Cyclingnews/Litespeed) same time
Irish:
23, David McCann (Colavita - Sutter Home presented by Cooking Light) at 13 mins 45 secs
28, Paul Griffin (Ireland)
29, David O'Loughlin (Navigators Insurance Cycling Team)
34, Mark Cassidy (Murphy and Gunn/Newlyn/M. Donnelly Sean Kelly)
37, Philip Deignan (Ireland) all same time
42, Brian Keneally (Ireland) at 14 mins 4 secs
54, Paidi O'Brien (Murphy and Gunn/Newlyn/M. Donnelly Sean Kelly) at 39 mins 50 secs
79, Stephen Gallagher (Murphy and Gunn/Newlyn/M. Donnelly Sean Kelly) at 39 mins 51 secs
81, Isaac Speirs (Murphy and Gunn/Newlyn/M. Donnelly Sean Kelly) same time
86, Derek Burke (Ireland) at 40 mins 26 secs
91, Martyn Irvine (Ireland) at 41 mins 21 secs
An Post Sprints competition:
1, Matti Breschel (CSC) 34 pts
2, Wesley Sulzberger (SouthAustralia.com/AIS) 30
3, Borut Bozic (Team LPR) 29
King of the Mountains:
1, Luis Pasamontes (Unibet.com) 30 pts
2, Roger Beuchat (LPR) 26 pts
3, Marcus Ljungqvist (CSC) 23 pts
Under 23 rider:
1, Stijn Vandenbergh (Unibet.com) 12 hours 20 mins 8 secs
2, Wesley Sulzberger (SouthAustralia.com/AIS) at 24 secs
3, Pieter Jacobs (Unibet.com) at 27 secs
Team:
1, Unibet.com, 37 hours 14 mins 33 secs
2, Team CSC, at 13 mins 44 secs
3, T-Mobile team, at 13 mins 48 secs
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