Bennett in the hunt as Walker wins again
After what he described as a comparatively easy day for him, Simon Richardson (Britain Rapha Condor) retained the race leader’s yellow jersey with a lead of 2 mins 49 secs over Mads Christensen (Denmark Designa Kokken).
Bennett, who was seventh on Sunday and sixth on Tuesday, finished eighth on equal time when the 96-mile stage from Killorglin ended in another bunch finish.
And the 18-year-old Carrick-on-Suir man, who was back on the podium to accept another award for the leading county rider, insisted that he did not fear the likes of Kirsipuu, who won four stages in the Tour de France and wore the yellow jersey for six days.
“If I am in the right position I know I can compete with those fellows,” said Bennett who won a gold medal at last year’s European junior track championships.
“I feel in my heart and soul I can. Maybe in the next few days if I get in another group and get in a good position I’ll get up further.”
But he admitted he does not have any designs on a jersey of any kind pointing out that he is still very young and does not yet have the strength to contest those awards.
“I am just going to sit in for the first three hours each day and if there is racing to be done in the last hour I’ll do the racing then,” he said. “I’ll go out and race every day and if it happens it happens.”
For some time yesterday it appeared as if Listowel man, Eugene Moriarty (Meath Engraveit.ie/BDBC/Cycleways), might finally win the elusive Rás stage.
“I have been second, third, fourth, fifth, but I have never won a stage in the Rás,” he said. “At our team meeting last night – while we were not putting all our eggs in the one basket – we thought I could win today’s stage.
“And when the Halfords guy took off on the hill approaching the finish I was able to get across to him. I had been minding myself for the previous 25k and I was ready for the sprint when it came. Then, all of a sudden, the cars came past and the bunch was bearing down on us.”
David O’Loughlin (An Post/Sean Kelly/M. Donnelly), wearing the pink jersey of the mountains leader, had established the leading group that also included Moriarty, Morten Kruse Brink (Denmark Designa Kokken), Luke Roberts (Germany Kuota-Indeland), Rune Jogert (Norway Giant-Veolia), Chris Newton (Britain Rapha Condor), Rob Partridge (Britain Halfords Bike Hut) and Pete Williams (Britain Candi TV Marshalls) and they were over a minute clear at Abbeyfeale and pulling away.
But two-time Rás winner Chris Newton, Kruse Brink and Rob Partridge had the interest of team mates to defend and they were never going to drive the group away.
“While they were coming through and they were riding on the front, it was frustrating,” O’Loughlin said. “Without some of them we could have done more but I feel good and I am getting better every day. I’ll keep trying for a stage win.”
After a succession of attacks had split them up, O’Loughlin, Roberts, Williams, Rob Partridge and Eugene Moriarty regrouped and when Roberts attacked Moriarty responded but, at this point the bunch had cut the deficit to nine seconds.
“Today was a great day for us,” raceleader, Simon Richardson, said. “Everything went perfectly to plan. We did not have to do much riding as KTM and Designa Kokken saw Chris Newton as a threat so they did 90 per cent of the work to bring that break back.”
Richardson, the son of a retired Methodist Minister, was more confident going into the final three days.
“It is such an unpredictable race though,” he said. “With the small teams and the hard roads anything can happen so we are definitely not counting our chickens yet.”
Nicholas Walker, who fulfilled his Rás ambition when he won Tuesday’s stage, got an exciting bonus when he outsprinted Kirsipuu for a second successive stage win which is a rare achievement for any Rás rider those days.
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