Wetterhall in yellow for Seskin showdown

NEW leader, Alexander Wetterhall (Sweden Team Sprocket Pro), will wear the yellow jersey when the FBD Insurance Rás arrives at the top of Seskin Hill tomorrow, but it would take a big prediction to identify the possible leader when the race departs the spiritual home of cycling.

Watterhall, who was a mountain bike racer in Sweden for 11 years before taking up road racing, arrived in Tipperary Town yesterday in a 20-man group that was allowed to dominate 105.9 mile stage from Oughterard as Dan Craven in the yellow jersey and his powerful Rapha Condor Sharp watched from afar.

In fact, the leaders were seven minutes and 10 seconds clear when the multi-medalled track star and two-time winner of the race, Chris Newton, went back to Craven to discuss the situation.

By that time, the leading group – that included the 2008 winner, Stephen Gallagher, two An Post/Sean Kelly riders, Pieter Ghyllebert and Connor McConvey, and two members of Craven’s Rapha Condor team, Ben Greenwood and Jon Tiernan-Locke – appeared to be unassailable.

That was until Craven, Newton and Matt Cronshaw went to the front of the pack, where they were joined by the remaining three members of the An Post/Sean Kelly team who were obviously anxious to consolidate their respective positions on the General Classification sheet.

As Wetterhall and McConvey shared the mountain primes at Killanena and Knockanena, the lead tumbled to three and a half minutes. And when they arrived at the finish line in Tipp Town they had reduced it to 2:38.

But Wetterhall, who trailed Craven by 16 seconds since Sunday, jumped into the overall lead and now holds an advantage of 1:46 over a group of six, Joseph Lewis (Australia Drapac Porsche), Austrian Josef Kugler (Arbo KTM-Gebruder Weis), his Swedish team mate, John Anderson, Connor McConvey, Rob Partridge (Wales) and Stuart Shaw (Australia Drapac Porsche).

Dan Craven is now seventh overall, 2:22 behind Wetterhall, but he was insisting that it is not over yet as he replaced yellow with the green points jersey which he retained since winning the first stage.

“At the moment we’ve lost a lot of time but myself or someone else from the team can take it back on another day – a similar break,” he said.

“We have had three very hard days of defending the yellow jersey and it’s now up to Wetterhall to do the defending and we can do some attacking riding. That’s more our style.

“The race isn’t over yet – there’s still four days to go and we are still within striking distance thanks to the team who did an amazing ride today.”

But Chris Newton sacrificed his chance of becoming only the third rider in history to win the race three times or more. After a prolonged spell at the front, towing the bunch along, he blew some distance from the finish and came in at the back of a group that was 9:42 down.

Wetterhall, who rode the Tour of Ireland two years ago, donned his first ever yellow jersey and threw down the gauntlet.

“I am an aggressive rider so this is a good race for me,” he said. “I have a good team, it’s half way through the race and we are ready to defend the yellow jersey.

“I am a beginner at this and I want to get really good at it. If the legs are with me I will go up Seskin Hill.”

Former German under-20 champion, Maximillan May, won yesterday’s stage in a big sprint with Aussie Joseph Lewis in second place and Peter Ghyllebert of the An Post/Sean Kelly team third.

May is riding for the Thuringer Energie team, the team Tony Martin was with when he won the race in 2007 before going on to big career as a pro – he was second on the Mont Vonteaux stage in last year’s Tour de France. May trains with Martin during the winter months.

One of the happiest men around, however, was the An Post/Sean Kelly team manager, Kurt Bogaerts, who heads for Sean Kelly territory with Connor McConvey, fifth, Mark McNally, ninth, Pieter Ghyllebert, 15th, and David O’Loughlin, 20th, on GC.

“We have a second, a first and now a third on the stages and (in terms of general classification) this is just what you want to happen. You need to let this happen. We’ll see tomorrow when we go to Seskin Hill. David O’Loughlin won there last time.

“The day after is a really hard day so we keep as many options open as possible. Today Pieter went forward, McConvey went forward so we had two guys at the front.

“It’s Connor McConvey’s longest stage race but I think he can be in contention. He is one of the strongest of the team. The guys are all powerful enough to win on Seskin Hill.”