Newton sitting pretty
It was a storming uphill finish in Rathdrum and Newton made the most of it, taking five seconds out of his closest rival, Malcolm Elliott (Yorkshire Trinity Capital) who had to settle for sixth place. That leaves Newton with a 13 second advantage going into today’s mountain stage to Wicklow.
“Taking time out of him was more important than winning the stage,” insisted Newton after his third stage victory this week. “In a race like this you have to take every little opportunity.”
While he insisted the race is not over yet, Newton also admitted he is looking quite good now, particularly with his team literally on fire.
“The team were just fantastic today. Some of the young lads are feeling a bit tired right now but they are learning from myself and Paul (Manning),” he said.
“Paul is doing a fantastic job controlling everything at the front. It was a shame he crashed on the first stage because he would have been a good rider for overall classification. I think he is probably better than I am.”
They were not alone in the chase yesterday as the Norwegians, with Morten Hegreberg third overall, protected their own interests. At 35 miles a nine-man leading group went over two minutes clear of the main bunch. There were three Irish riders involved - Bryan Keane (Ireland Grant Thornton), former winner Tommy Evans who is riding for Elliott’s team, and Eddie O’Donoghue from Clonmel, riding for the Dublin Murphy and Gunn team.
The lead disintegrated after being away for some 50 miles and Evans and Jamie Norfolk from Scotland went clear on their own. The pair brought the lead back up to over a minute before Evans was left on his own and stayed away until he was absorbed by the bunch with four miles to go.
It was then the real action began. The Norwegians went to the front and Newton stalked them. Eugene Moriarty was also storming through the bunch after being pushed into the gutter with a mile to go.
Up the hill the Norwegians were leading it out in a line with Simon Kelly (Cork Nucleus), runner-up on Thursday, again up in second place. He lost a wheel and then Newton, who was fourth, came around him and stormed up the hill to claim stage victory ahead of Hegreberg, Nathan Mitchell from the US and luckless Moriarty.
Timmy Barry (Tipperary Dan Morrissey), the leading Irishman overall, finished eighth but lost 11 seconds to Yanto Barker of Scotland.
Newton leads by 13 seconds from Elliott going out on today’s mountain stage which incorporates all the big climbs in the Wicklow Mountains.
“Fortunately the climbs come early on so we won’t have to expend riders,” said Newton. “We’ll have three or for riders in the front group so hopefully we can control it that way.”
The race ends with the circuit finish in Phoenix Park tomorrow.
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