Flying Dutchman delivers Rás stage victory in Mayo

It’s ‘as you were’ going into stage three of the An Post Rás today, as Sunday’s stage winner Nicolai Brochner-Nielsen managed to hold on to the yellow jersey by the skin of his teeth.

The Danish rider may have conceded seven seconds to yesterday’s victor Jan-Willen Van Schip of the Delta Cycling Team from the Netherlands but Brochner-Nielsen and his team did enough to preserve yellow.

Van Schip got his timing right to win the day in the picturesque village of Newport, Co Mayo when he attacked a five-man break with five of the 142 kilometres remaining.

Up the road with him when he went clear were big Irish hopes Damien Shaw (An Post Chain Reaction) and Mark Dowling (Strata3/VeloRevolution) as well as Ed Laverack (JLT Condor) and Alex Richardson (Bike Channel UK/Canyon).

Shaw and Dowling were first to wriggle free of the bunch with 30 kilometres remaining before Dowling skipped across on his own and the other two soon joined. They immediately got down to work and built a commanding lead of over a minute on the meandering approach to Newport.

Knowing if they stayed away to the finish line with a similar margin the winner from the group would take the yellow jersey so it was unsurprising they gave it everything they had. Shaw in particular did some huge turns to pull them away but the bunch behind weren’t one bit happy with the composition up ahead and they set about chasing at a furious pace.

Prominent in that game of cat and mouse were the team of race leader Brochner-Nielsen (Riwal Platform Cycling) and they set a blistering tempo at the head of the field.

Indeed, hectic racing was the theme for the afternoon as the stage was completed in an ultra-quick time of 3 hours and 12 minutes.

The gap began to tumble with 15 kilometres to go as more teams came to the front to reel in the leaders and set up their own respective fast men for a sprint.

Killarney CC were protecting the interests of their fast-man Richard Maes while Aqua Blue Academy were also present with their sprinter Matteo Cigala.

Team Wiggins as well as the Belgian and Australian national teams were also hovering at the front with intent.

Sensing the gap was tumbling too quickly, Van Schip broke clear on his own and went for glory with five kilometres to go, building a lead of 30 seconds and clinging on by just seconds as he stormed across the finish line with both hands in the air.

Hurtling in just behind him to take second was Chris Latham of Team Wiggins with Yannis Yssaad of the France Armee de Terre team in third.

“I’m really happy with the result.

“I knew the wind direction would change as we made the turn in the last few kilometres and I decided to just go for it. I didn’t think I’d be able to stay but I kept pushing and thankfully I had the legs,” said winner Van Schip.

“With three kilometres to go I had 28 seconds and with two to go I still had 23 seconds. Inside the last kilometres I was 15 seconds ahead and it can still go wrong at that point, but I held on” the Dutchman recalled of the last few hectic kilometres.

Best of the Irish was Robert Jon McCarthy (JLT-Condor); the former stage winner and Rás yellow jersey taking eighth place on the day.

Cigala was an impressive fourth on the stage and rounding out the top 10 was Maes, the Killarney CC rider having his sprint slightly impeded in the final but still getting up to post his best ever Rás result.

Prior to that late drama, the stage was largely uneventful with one of the main talking points being the barriers that came down across a railway crossing with around 90 kilometres of the stage completed.

At that point there was a group of 30 up the road but with only a handful of seconds on the peloton behind.

The message was relayed to the riders to stop racing and as the gap was less than 30 seconds, UCI regulations stipulate that the race would restart with the peloton all back together.

Some of the Irish riders who were actually clear at that point included Sean Lacey (Aqua Blue Academy), Sean McKenna (An Post Chain Reaction) and Simon Ryan (Strata3/VeloRevolution), though it’s unlikely they would have stayed clear of the peloton had the barriers stayed up.

Today’s stage takes the riders on a 149-kilometre journey from Newport in a clockwise direction to Bundoran in Donegal and it’s the last day before Sunday where a bunch sprint is expected.

There are no categorised climbs so second on General Classification Dennis Bakker (Delta Cycling) will retain the climber’s jersey as long as he completes the stage, though there is one intermediate sprint at 60 kilometres outside Iniscrone which will ensure a lively start.

The riders are expected there are 12:15 before heading to Templeboy, Skreen, Carrownaboll, Sligo 1.45pm (approx.) and Bundoran around 2.30pm.

See Digest P19 for Results