Lucky 13 gives battling Power best ever Irish placing

CIARAN POWER will leave for the USA today with a smile on his face after the best performance of his cycling career in the intense heat on Saturday afternoon when he finished 13th in the Olympic Road Race.

The title went to Paulo Bettini of Italy who won from Sergio Paulinho of Portugal with Axel Merckx, son of the legendary Eddie Merckx, taking the bronze medal with just eight seconds separating the top three.

Behind those, Erik Zabel won the big bunch sprint for fourth place with Power closing down all the time.

“I had aimed for a top 30 or maybe top 20 place so I have to be delighted with this,” he said.

Taking into account that practically all the stars of world cycling - with the notable exception of six time Tour de France winner, Lance Armstrong - assembled for the race, one can see how competitive this event was.

And the performance should undoubtedly enhance his market value on the professional circuit. He had had a number of impressive performances earlier in the season. This performance, however, surpasses all others.

The previous best Irish placing was 17th by Martin Earley at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

But the pros were not allowed to compete at Olympic level in those days so the event has taken on a whole new dimension in recent years with stars like Jan Ullrich dominating.

Ullrich, the defending champion, finished in 19th position, six places behind the Waterford man who also had stars like Tyler Hamilton from the US, Thomas Voeckler and Richard Virenque, one of the pre-race favourites, Stuart O’Grady from Australia, and many more behind him.

Power was always near the front line and did everything right on the day.

At one point it appeared as if he just might figure in the contest for the medals when he was away for almost an hour of cycling with a six-man group that became established with 65 km remaining.

There had been several attacks before Cristian Moreni of Italy escaped along with Jose Isidro Chacon Diaz of Venezuela and they opened up a lead of 29 seconds when Power, Robbie McEwen of Australia, Ryan Cox of South Africa and Martin Elmiger of Switzerland rode clear.

“The rider in front of me went and I just followed the wheel,” Power recalled afterwards. “It was my best race ever. I wanted to get into the top 30 but in the back of my mind I thought top 20 so I am delighted with 13th.”

He said he never thought the six man breakaway group would stay away once the riders behind picked up the pace at the business end of the race.

Mark Scanlon went into the race tired from his exertions in the Tour de France followed by a world cup race in Germany and then the Tour of Denmark which only ended last week.

To compound his difficulties he had a headache on Saturday but he stayed in the bunch until the last two laps when he decided to abandon.