Newton again wins battle with Elliott

CHRIS NEWTON (Recycling.co.uk) maintained leadership of the FBD Insurance RAS with Malcolm Elliott (Yorkshire Trinity Capital) still the closest challenger after yesterday’s stage.

The pair once again fought out an exciting sprint finish when the third stage finished in Lisdoonvarna with Newton claiming a second successive stage win.

The battle for supremacy on Corkscrew Hill added an extra dimension to the 97 mile trip from Tubbercurry. While KOM leader, Eugene Moriarty (Meath cycleways.com), was not involved in this skirmish, he reinforced his defence of the Polka Dot jersey finishing second behind former winner, Julian Winn on the first prime at Lurga.

After that there was plenty of activity at the front of the bunch. Mark Lovatt from Malcolm Elliott’s team, and Paul Healion (Dublin Usher Insulations) made an escape and led by half a minute for 38 miles before they were reeled in at Clarinbridge. Shortly after, six others escaped to form a lead group that involved Dungarvan’s Rory Wyley (Tipperary Dan Morrissey), Fermoyman, Michael Hennessy (Cork Nucleus), John Mason (Tipperary Worldwide Cycles), Dutchman Menno de Boer, Scotland’s Gary Hand and Wales’ Paul Sheppard.

That group caught the breakaway group at the punishing Corkscrew Hill where there was a massive crash that brought down more than half the field. The decisive attack came as those at the back were extricating themselves from the carnage.

That took Newton, Elliott, Garbriel Rasch from Norway, John Tanner from Elliott’s team, Robin Sharman from Newton’s team, Malte Urban from Germany, Ireland’s Stephen Gallagher, Yanto Barker from Wales, Sunday’s stage winner, Morten Hegreberg, and Corkman Timmy Barry (Tipperary Dan Morrissey) clear to contest the prime.

Morten Heggreberg led over the summit from Urban, Sharman and Newton. The group powered into Lisdoonvarna where Newton again snatched victory from Elliott.

“I had no intention of winning the stage,” he admitted afterwards. “The plan was to defend the leadership and we had a couple of guys who sacrificed themselves today before we got to the climb. I did not know what to expect but it was not as severe as I thought it would be.

“The finish was one of those slightly uphill efforts. The group spread out across the road and I went for it. You don’t get too many opportunities to win stages on this race. I am a bit flattered to be where I am right now. My form was poor coming into the race and today the climb and the race to the finish took a bit out of me but I am coming around,” he said.

It was a huge day for Barry who has prepared specifically for this year’s RAS after a five year break from the sport. Yesterday he jumped to fourth on the general classification sheet, just 2mins 32 secs behind Newton who leads by 8 secs.

He leads the county classification by 3:43 from Sean Lacey with Philip Cassidy at 4:08 and yesterday took the Cuchuliann Trophy for the best County Rider.