Clemens Fankhauser of the Austria Tirol Cycling Team scooped the biggest victory of his career in Skerries yesterday when he won the An Post Rás.

The An Post-Chain reaction team may have fielded just two Irishmen out of a possible five in its line-up for this year’s An Post Rás, but it is the Belgian-based squad who drew first blood on stage one into Roscommon yesterday.