Teggart takes stage win as Dunbar retains yellow

Eddie Dunbar is still in the race leader’s yellow jersey after stage three of the Stena Ireland International Junior Tour yesterday was won by Matthew Teggart of the Nicolas Roche Performance Team.

Teggart just edged out Stephen Shanahan (Irish National Team) and Jonathen Brown (Hot Tubes) but as Dunbar finished in the same time he still holds a handsome lead of almost three minutes at the top of the General Classification after his solo win by that margin the day before.

The 122-kilometre stage was a really testing one with four categorised climbs (including the first category one climb of the race at Corkscrew Hill) and took the riders in a north easterly direction from Ennis to Barefield, Gort, Lisdoonvarna, Doolin, the Cliffs of Moher, Liscannor, Lahinch to the finish in Ennistymon.

An early break containing two Munster Sensa riders, Jack Hickey and Steven Gilman, went up the road and pulled out a gap of over two minutes but that was reeled in around the halfway point by the relentless pace at the front by the Dunbar-led Irish National team.

The race really split up on the Corkscrew Hill (94k) and later, the Castle Hill climb with 15 kilometres left.

There, race leader Eddie Dunbar and team-mate Michael O’Loughlin lit things up and they pulled an 11-man group clear before four more bridged across.

And that’s how it stayed to the line with the various teams jockeying for position trying to tee up their respective sprinters.

But when it came to the gallop it was Teggart who showed the quickest pair of wheels.

Dunbar keeps yellow and the climbers’ jersey. O’Loughlin is the leading first year junior and Teggart wears the green jersey into tomorrow’s 118 kilometre trek around east Clare.

Meanwhile, Alexander Kristoff held off Peter Sagan in a sprint finish to claim victory in the 12th stage of the Tour de France from Bourg-en-Bresse to Saint-Etienne yesterday. The Team Katusha rider pounced over the final 500 metres to hold off Sagan (Cannondale), with the Slovakian forced to settle for his fourth second-place finish of this year’s tour.

There was no change at the top of the overall standings, with Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) retaining his yellow jersey and his two minutes 23 seconds lead over Richie Porte (Team Sky), with Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) in third.

Nicolas Roche (Tinkoff-Saxo) came over the line in a small group just over two minutes back, the Irishman paying for his efforts of the day before when he made a brave bid for stage glory.

Elsewhere, Team Sky have terminated the contract of Jonathan Tiernan-Locke with immediate effect after confirmation of an International Cycling Union anti-doping violation.

The 29-year-old has not raced since being withdrawn from competition by his team last September following the discovery of discrepancies in his biological passport.

Team Sky Team Principal Sir Dave Brailsford said: “Jonathan’s contract has been terminated today.

“Whilst there have been no doubts about his time with us, his doping violation — from readings taken before he joined this team — means there’s no place for him in Team Sky.”