Belated birthday boost for attack-minded Aiken

ROGER AIKEN (Louth Safe Cycling), who turned 24 three days earlier, got a belated birthday present yesterday in the form of his first ever stage win as the FBD Insurance RAS got under way with an 84 mile stage from Dublin to Emyvale.

And there was a surprise race leader as well when Morten Hegrebert from Norway took custody of the yellow jersey on sprint bonuses along the way to leading overall by just one second. Aiken is second after finishing second on the stage, seven seconds ahead of Yorkshire’s Kevin Dawson with Britain’s, Kevin Dawson, fourth.

This quartet had left a long suffering leading group that had battled through torrential showers, driven by an ice-cold wind, that came thundering down soon after they had left Dublin in balmy sunshine. At the end of it all there were no wild scenes of celebration. The riders who made it on to the podium, the first three along with Eugene Moriarty, who claimed the mountains jersey and the leading young rider, Menno de Boer from the Netherlands, could hardly speak, they were so cold.