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.