Gallagher grabs the glory

STEPHEN GALLAGHER (An Post/Sean Kelly/Martin Donnelly) set out from Ballinamore yesterday morning hoping for a stage win, but by last night he had introduced an exciting new dimension to this year’s FBD Insurance Rás by claiming the race leader’s yellow jersey in a three-man sprint into Claremorris.

The 27-year-old Armagh man, who is based in the Sean Kelly Academy in Belgium, was rewarded for his consistency on Sunday’s first stage when he finished second in a Hot Spot sprint in Kells because that gave him what proved to be two valuable bonus seconds.

The two-second advantage going into yesterday’s stage proved crucial when he got into a three-man breakaway group along with England’s Dean Downing and Evan Oliphant. He knew he would be on a hiding to nothing in this sprint, but he would happily settle for the bigger prize that came wrapped in glorious yellow.