Crash ends Cassidy’s Rás hopes

JOY can quickly turn to disappointment for any cyclist but for Mark Cassidy it was heart rending yesterday when a crash on the outskirts of Limerick City stripped him of the yellow jersey and put his FBD Insurance Rás hopes on hold for another year.

The previous day the 23-year-old An Post/Sean Kelly rider had emulated his father, Philip, when he donned the race leader’s jersey for the very first time but yesterday he was in hospital in Limerick when former race winner, David McCann of the Irish national team, took charge of it although he shares equal time at the top of the general classification sheet with the two-time winner, Chris Newton (Stena Rapha).

There was a double celebration for McCann who turned the tables on Newton by winning the 97-mile stage from Corofin to Tralee 24 hours after the former world track champion and winner Olympic silver and bronze medals had outfoxed the Belfast man to claim his 10th stage victory in Lisdoonvarna.

But last night there was sympathy throughout the peloton for the young Meathman who ended up in hospital with a suspected broken elbow after a horrendous crash.

‘‘Fortunately it was not broken but they put it in a cast just to rest it a bit,’’ he said. ‘‘I hope I can get back on the bike in two or three weeks.

‘‘We were just going along in the bunch — we were going pretty fast on the right hand side of the road — and I just heard someone shout something and immediately I hit a rock in the middle of the road,’’ Cassidy recalled.

‘‘I had no time at all to react and I went straight over the handlebars. I landed on my elbow. Fortunately it is not broken but they told me in the hospital it is pretty badly bruised.

‘‘But I am so happy just to have been in the yellow jersey for a day. It was very disappointing for the team to lose it that way because we actually had it for two days.’’

He was back at the Earl of Desmond Hotel last night with his team manager, Kurt Bogaerts, who said he believed they could have defended the jersey.

‘‘I believe we could bring the jersey home,’’ he said. ‘‘At the time we had Benny (de Schrooder) in the five-man break and he was high up in general classification. We had the race 100% under control at the time of the crash.’’

But there was an air of confidence surrounding McCann who won the overall lead back in 2004 as he donned what was for him a very familiar jersey.

‘‘I wasn’t even thinking of the jersey, I was just going for the stage win,’’ he said. ‘‘I knew yesterday my form was coming around and I knew my day would come if I kept plugging at it.

‘‘I felt sorry for Mark. The bunch all waited for him when he crashed — nobody wanted to see someone lose the race like that. He got back up on the bike and caught us but he was in too much pain.’’

Chris Newton has won the race twice now has the opportunity to become only the third man in history to win it for a third time.

‘‘I punctured in the last three kilometres and I would have been marking David (McCann) otherwise,’’ he said. ‘‘He was the only one who was close on time.

‘‘We had a minute on the others but could have taken two minutes if the group had worked properly.’’

Less than three minutes separates the top 40 riders going into today’s fifth stage which takes the race to Skibbereen with less than a minute and a half separating the top 15 on general classification.