Carrick-on-Suir sprinter Sam Bennett delivered the An Post Chain Reaction team’s second stage win of this year’s An Post Rás when he outgunned Dane Morten Ollegaard (Blue Water Cycling), Polish rider Marcin Bialablocki (Team UK Youth) and the rest of the peloton in a mass bunch sprint to the line at the end of stage three in Listowel yesterday.

It was all change on the An Post Rás yesterday as a seemingly flat second stage delivered a new stage winner and another Irish race leader into Nenagh.

Last year’s overall winner Gediminas Bagdonas (An Post) out-galloped a large bunch into Skerries yesterday to take victory at the end of stage eight of the An Post Rás as overnight leader, Frenchman Nicolas Baldo, finished safely in the main field to bring the final yellow jersey home to France.

Defending champion Gediminas Bagdonas (An Post) survived a massive crash in the peloton with around 50km to go yesterday to rejoin the front of the race with the help of his team and take victory on stage three of the An Post Rás in Westport yesterday.

On a day that, up until the final kilometres, looked earmarked for a mass bunch sprint into Kilkenny yesterday, Polish rider Marcin Bialablocki led a late four-man escape group across the line on Patrick Street to take stage victory and become the first overall leader of the 2012 An Post Rás.